•  I 


UNIVERSJTY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

AT   LOS  ANGELES 


STILWELL,  Arthur  Edward;  5.  Roches- 
ter, N.Y.,  Oct.  21,  1859;  s.  Charles  H.  and  Mary 
(Piereon)  S.;  cd.  pub.  sclis.;  m.  Jennie  A.  Wpod, 
1879.  Officer  Travelers  Ins.  Co.,  Hartford,  Conn., 
until  1887;  built  Kansas  City  Sub  Belt  R.R.,  Kan- 
sas City  Southern  Ry.  (pres.  of  same  at  32);  built 
in  all  7  railroads— 2,500  miles;  designed  and  built 
Port  Arthur,  Texas,  and  Port  Arthur  Ship. Canal;, 
founder,  andpres.  4  yrs.  Nat  SafetyCo.;  \y>.,chrnji. 
Guardian  Discount  <fe  Finance  Co.;  dir.  Ft.  Lee  & 
Manhattan  Realty  Co.  'Author:  The  Great  Plan 
(how  to  pay  for  the  war),  1918  (transl.  into  French 
an-!  Swedish);  To  All  the  WbrW;  The  Light  That 
Never  Failed;  Live  and  Grow  Young,  1921;  The 
Empire  of  the  Soul.  Home:  305  West  End  Av. 
Office:  730  Fifth  Av.,  New  York,  N.Y. 


STILL  WELL,  Arthur  Edward,  pres.  of 
Kansas  City,  Mexico  and  Orient  Ry.  Co.  and 
U.  S.  and  Mex.  Trust  Co.;  b.  Rochester, 
'.  Y.,  1861;  In  life  ins.  business,  Chicago, 
1883-8;  v.-p.  Missouri,  Kansas  &  Texas-Twist- 
Cp.,  1888;  built  belt  road  around  Kansas 
City;  projected  and  directed  construction  of 
Kansas  City,  Pittsburg  &  Gulf  R.  R.,  now 
completed  to  Mexican  Gulf.  Address:  Kan- 

RDQ     fitir       l>.ln 


CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 


CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 


FIFTEEN  YEARS'  CONTEST 
WITH  THE  MONEY  TRUST 


BY 

ARTHUR  EDWARD  STILWELL 

AUTHOR  OF 

Confidence  or  National  Suicide — Universal 

Peace — War  is  Mesmerism — Reforming 

the  Camp— The  Road  to  Success 


FOURTH  EDITION 


THE  FARNUM  PUBLISHING  CO. 

FIRST    NAT.    BANK    BLDG., 

CHICAGO 


COPYRIGHT,  1912 

BY 
AETHUE  EDWAED  STILWELL. 


This  book  is  dedicated  to  my  good  wife, 
who  was  my  constant  companion  in  all 
my  travels  during  most  of  these  years  of 
persecution,  and  whose  encouragement 
and  unselfish  devotion  sustained  me  in 
the  darkest  hours. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE 13 

II     WHAT  OTHERS  THINK 34 

£2          III     MY  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK 37 

V) 

>_  IV     THE  BUILDING  OF  MY  FIRST  ROAD 45 

de 

V     THE  PORT  ARTHUR  FIGHT 57 

CO 

VI     THE  RECEIVERSHIP  OF  THE  KANSAS  CITY 

SOUTHERN 68 

in          VII     THE  GATES  OFFER 78 

M 

g       VIII     MY  RESIGNATION  FROM  THE  GUARDIAN  TRUST 

COMPANY 84 

•  IX     WHAT  AN  EXPERT  CAN  SAY 87 

8 

x  X     THE  TESTIMONIAL  DINNER 96 

u  XI     THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD 98 

w 

XII     THE    FIRST    IMPORTANT   STEP   TO    BLOCK   THE 
q 
5  ORIENT  ROAD 109 

XIII  THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  & 

MEXICAN  TRUST  COMPANY 114 

XIV  THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD 119 

XV     THE  OBSTRUCTIVE  TACTICS 130 

XVI     FROM  OUT  THE  GLOOM.  .  .    136 


453374 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVII     BLACK  LIST  AND  RUIN 139 

XVIII     FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  OBJECTING 148 

XIX     WHAT  I  KNOW 155 

XX     THE  SEEMING  TRIUMPH  OF  EVIL 165 

XXI     To  THE  MONEY  TRUST 171 

XXII     THE  WHIRLWIND  OF  DOLLARS 177 

XXIII     THE  REMEDY 1 80 

XXIV     THE  CONCLUSIONS 188 

ADDENDA .  193 


INTRODUCTION 

No  man  ever  had  his  work,  while  under  way,  more 
misjudged  than  mine  has  been;  experts  of  all  kinds 
have  made  maps  to  show  where  I  was  wrong  in  my 
calculations  and  estimates,  yet  my  estimates  were 
correct.  All  worked  out  much  better  than  I  antici- 
pated, and  I  wonder  what  I  could  have  done  for 
this  nation  had  I  been  left  alone  in  peace,  to  serve 
the  money  entrusted  to  me;  or  had  I  back  of  me 
people  strong  enough  to  have  said  "Hands  off." 

Let  me  take  your  time  to  give  you  my  view-point 
of  life;  then  the  balance  I  write  will  be  clearer  to 
you. 

As  the  world  advances  in  civilization  and  pop- 
ulation, new  conditions  need  new  utilities.  Men 
always  reaching  out  for  advancement  send  out  their 
desire  into  the  realm  of  thought.  Cities  grow,  pop- 
ulation increases;  it  takes  men  a  long  time  to  go 
to  and  from  their  business.  They  feel  the  need  of 
quicker  transit,  and  day  by  day  this  desire  shapes 
itself  until  some  morning  the  city  awakes  and  finds 
some  man  has  solved  part  of  the  problem;  as 
McAdoo  solved  the  great  problem  of  interstate 
tubes  between  New  York  and  Jersey  City.  Now, 
such  a  man  is  not  the  originator  of  these  blessings 
he  is  to  confer;  it  was  the  ceaseless  desire  of  the 


CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

people  that  found  expression  through  his  mind ;  he 
was  the  messenger  boy  sent  to  deliver  the  message, 
and  if  the  world  understood  this  as  well  as  I  do,  it 
would  never  attempt  to  trip  any  of  nature's  mes- 
senger boys,  but  rather  help  them  all  to  deliver 
their  messages. 

Westinghouse  felt  the  thrill  that  went  through 
the  traveler's  mind  when  the  old-time  brakemen 
rushed  out  and  applied  the  hand  brake.  He  felt 
the  desire  for  greater  safety,  and  he  delivered  the 
message  of  the  air-brake.  Morse  felt  the  need  of 
the  world  for  a  better  means  of  sending  news,  and 
delivered  the  message  of  the  telegraph.  Field  felt 
all  nature's  need  of  quicker  communication,  and 
delivered  the  message  of  the  cable.  Bell  felt  the 
need  of  carrying  the  human  voice,  and  delivered 
the  message  of  the  telephone.  Edison  has  felt  any 
number  of  the  world's  needs,  and  he  has  been  busy 
in  delivering  messages  of  all  kinds. 

There  is  no  use  disputing  it.  It's  as  fixed  a  law 
as  the  laws  that  govern  the  solar  system.  Nature 
picks  the  messenger  boy  to  deliver  all  of  the  earth's 
great  blessings.  Storms  may  assail  him;  he  may 
lose  his  way;  wolves  may  chase  him  up  a  tree  and 
keep  him  there  all  day;  bandits  may  capture  him 
and  hold  him  for  a  ransom,  but  he  is  still  destiny's 
agent,  and  he  and  no  one  else  is  the  one  to  deliver  the 
message.  Man  cannot  pick  the  men  to  deliver 
these  messages.  Nature  or  God  alone  can. 

I  will  admit  that  the  journey  has  been  long  and 


INTRODUCTION 

my  feet  are  sore,  and  that  I  would  not  mind  the 
rest  that  would  come  could  I  give  the  Orient  mes- 
sage into  the  hands  of  others;  but  no  one  else  can 
read  it  as  well  as  I  can.  They  will  leave  out  some 
of  the  cities  that  have  been  written  in  the  message, 
and  thus  unintentionally  rob  the  shareholders  of 
earnings  that  would  otherwise  accrue  to  them;  so 
I  feel  that  it  is  my  duty  to  go  the  whole  journey 
and  deliver  the  message  of  blessing  to  the  Pacific, 
and  I  will,  if  it  is  in  my  power  to  do  so. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE 

This  is  a  true  story  of  fifteen  years  of  persecu- 
tion; a  battle  day  by  day  for  the  right  to  live  and 
create;  a  battle  with  the  unfair  and  destructive 
methods  of  the  so-called  Money  Trust,  and  I  can 
assure  my  readers  that  no  sufferers  in  Siberia  are 
more  deserving  of  your  sympathy  than  those  who 
are  being  daily  sentenced  by  the  Money  Trust  to 
the  Siberia  of  Finance. 

There  may  be  no  chain  gangs.  They  may  not 
travel  in  cattle  cars  nor  walk  thousands  of  miles 
in  the  snow,  but  the  Money  Trust  is  as  autocratic 
and  wields  as  great  a  power  as  the  Czar  of  Russia, 
and  the  Siberia  to  which  I  have  been  sentenced  at 
their  command  has  given  to  me  and  many  others 
as  great  mental  and  physical  suffering  as  the  Siberia 
of  Russia. 

You  may  ask:  Why  have  I  persevered  against 
the  unfair  conditions?  Because  I  have  great  faith 
in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  right,  and  I  believe  that 
the  nation  that  removed  the  curse  of  the  pirates 
of  North  Africa,  and  freed  the  slaves  of  the  South, 
can  be  relied  upon  sooner  or  later  to  break  these 
fetters  forged  by  the  Money  Trust,  and  set  free 

13 


14  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

men  like  myself — who  dare  work  for  the  upbuilding 
of  their  nation. 

Not  many  experiences  like  mine  can  be  found, 
because  few  men  have  the  physical  strength,  pa- 
tience and  power  of  endurance  which  seems  to 
have  been  my  birthright,  and  has  enabled  me  until 
now  to  jump  every  hurdle  put  in  my  path.  In  the 
writing  and  publishing  of  this  book,  I  have  no 
desire  for  revenge — revenge  is  baggage  that  I 
never  carry — but  I  do  desire  to  see  the  great  work 
started  by  William  Jennings  Bryan  in  Baltimore, 
at  the  Democratic  Convention,  carried  out,  and  a 
President  in  the  White  House  with  no  entangling 
alliances,  with  a  Congress  and  Senate  so  powerful 
that  it  can,  if  the  President  wishes  it,  once  and 
for  all  end  the  injustice  of  the  Money  Trust,  and 
no  longer  allow  the  Comptroller's  office  to  be  a  tool 
whereby  Wall  Street  may  call  the  loans  of  any  man 
they  wish  to  ruin.  I  hope,  if  the  Democratic  Party 
is  victorious  in  the  next  election,  that  it  will  pass 
laws  making  the  profession  of  assassinating  Amer- 
ican business  and  business  men  rank  with  man- 
slaughter, which  it  has  often  proved  to  be. 

I  will  give  you  an  example:  When  the  Amer- 
ican Sugar  Refining  Company,  through  Messrs. 
Havemeyer  and  Kissell  of  the  Wall  Street  Bank- 
ing House,  closed  the  Siegle  refinery  in  Phila- 
delphia, it  brought  with  it  the  failure  of  one  of  the 
great  Trust  Companies  of  Philadelphia;  the  Vice- 
President  committed  suicide,  and  the  papers  state 


THE  SIBERIA  JOF  FINANCE  15 

that  the  failure  of  the  Trust  Company  caused 
numerous  deaths  from  financial  loss  and  worry. 
This  is  only  one  case.  There  are  others.  If  cer- 
tain men  in  New  York  had  kept  their  promise, 
the  Knickerbocker  Trust  Company  would  not  have 
failed,  nor  its  President,  Mr.  Barney,  committed 
suicide. 

I  prefer  to  have  the  McNamaras  blow  up  my 
building  with  dynamite  than  to  have  my  property 
taken  from  me  by  the  unprincipled  methods  of 
the  Money  Trust.  In  the  first  case,  I  have  my 
lot  left  and  can  rebuild — while  the  cruel  methods 
employed  in  the  second  case  not  only  destroy  the 
property,  but  often  health  and  reputation.  Why 
should  it  be  that  in  case  a  poor  man  destroys  my 
building  with  dynamite  I  have  the  entire  legal 
machinery  of  the  nation  to  bring  him  to  justice, 
but  if  my  business  is  destroyed  by  a  combination 
of  rich  men,  and  my  stockholders  lose  millions,  there 
is  no  way  that  I  can  bring  these  men  before  the 
bar  of  justice,  and  no  newspaper  dare  take  up  my 
fight  or  say  one  word  in  my  favor,  for  they  well 
know  if  they  do  the  black  hand  of  the  Money  Trust 
will  then  be  turned  against  them?  What  I  say 
regarding  the  press  is  absolutely  true.  I  have  the 
highest  regard  for  newspapers  and  appreciate  their 
high  sense  of  justice,  but  know  full  well  that  for 
any  newspaper  in  any  way  to  undertake  to  fight 
my  battle  would  mean  ruin  for  that  paper.  It 
would  first  lose  all  its  financial  advertising,  then  the 


16  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

large  department  stores  and  others  would  find  that 
they  could  not  rediscount  their  paper  as  before, 
and  it  would  be  intimated  that  as  long  as  they  con- 
tinued to  advertise  in  such  and  such  a  paper  they 
could  not  expect  the  usual  banking  credit.  I  have 
had  a  number  of  talks  with  newspaper  men,  and 
they  say:  "Stilwell,  we  have  watched  your  persecu- 
tion and  unequal  fight,  and  know  that  all  you  say 
is  true,  but  we  are  helpless  to  aid  you."  And  I 
know  that  when  this  book  is  published  any  num- 
ber of  papers  will  be  forced  to  comment  unfavor- 
ably, and  do  all  they  can  to  ridicule  it  and  my 
work. 

Let  us  contemplate  the  unjust  conditions  as  they 
exist.  The  rich  man  is  separated  from  his  deeds; 
his  deeds  only  go  before  the  bar  of  justice.  The 
poor  man  is  tried  alone  for  his  deeds.  The  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company  is  convicted  of  breaking  the 
Sherman  Law,  and  the  evidence  proved  conclu- 
sively that  they  certainly  broke  the  laws  of  justice 
and  humanity  in  the  conduct  of  their  business. 
The  acts  of  the  officers  and  directors  were  brought 
to  trial — not  the  officers  and  directors.  The 
McNamaras  blew  up  buildings,  and  the  McNa- 
maras  were  tried — not  the  buildings  that  they  blew 
up.  Had  one  of  the  agents  of  the  Standard  Oil 
Company  destroyed  the  building,  the  case,  I  sup- 
pose, would  then  have  been :  was  it  a  ruined  build- 
ing or  was  it  not?  The  question  as  to  who  did  it 
would  probably  not  have  been  considered  by  the 


THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE  17 

court.  The  absolute  lack  of  feeling  that  these 
financial  cannibals  show  would  leave  one  to  think 
that  they  were  suffering  from  a  disease  as  danger- 
ous as  rabies — a  disease  that  had  deadened  all  finer 
feelings  and  sense  of  right  to  such  an  extent  that 
nothing  but  the  dread  of  a  penitentiary  sentence 
would  cure  them. 

A  few  years  ago  I  had  a  conversation  with  a 
leading  official  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company.  He 
was  a  grand  old  man,  a  church  member,  and  char- 
itable, but  he  had  been  educated  in  this  Standard 
Oil  school  (or  school  of  no  standard),  and  had  I 
not  known  him  so  well  I  would  have  inferred  by 
the  story  he  told  me  that  he  had  never  heard  of  the 
Golden  Rule.  I  will  give  you  his  story  as  nearly  as 
I  can,  word  for  word.  I  started  the  conversation 
by  saying:  "I  suppose  it  is  useless  for  anyone  to 
attempt  to  sell  oil  against  such  an  organization  as 
your  company." 

I  seemed  to  have  touched  the  one  inhuman 
trait  in  his  character,  and  he  smiled  and  rubbed 
his  hands  as  I  imagine  the  old  pirates  of 
Tarifa,  Spain,  did  when  they  came  ashore  with 
a  big  loot,  after  holding  up  some  merchant  ship. 
"Well,"  he  said,  "Stilwell,  it  is  quick  work  putting 
them  asleep.  I  had  a  man  in  our  Cincinnati  office 
who  had  saved  about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars ; 
he  found  out  that  the  Standard  Oil  had  practically 
no  trade  in  one  of  the  Southern  States.  (I  think 
he  said  Alabama.)  He  resigned  from  our  employ, 


18  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

moved  down  there,  and  in  three  years  built  up  a 
business  that  netted  him  between  forty  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars  per  year.  Oh,  he  was  a  good 
hustler,"  my  friend  said,  "and  we  made  up  our 
mind  that  we  wanted  his  business.  I  offered  him 
two  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  sell  out,  and  what 
do  you  suppose!  He  had  the  nerve  to  refuse  it. 

"Well,  I  put  in  a  system  of  oil  wagons  and  sold 
oil  at  one  cent  per  gallon  less  than  it  cost  him  to 
get  it.  The  next  year  I  sold  at  two  cents  less 
than  it  cost  him  to  get  it.  He  was  a  good  fighter, 
and  met  our  prices.  But  it  was  useless.  No  one 
would  lend  him  money  or  help  him,  although  he 
tried  in  every  way  to  get  financial  aid.  They  knew 
we  were  after  him  and  would  get  him  in  time.  We 
cleaned  him  out  in  a  little  over  two  years.  Such  a 
fool  not  to  sell  out  for  the  two  hundred  thousand 
that  I  offered  him!" 

The  story  was  related  with  very  evident  satis- 
faction, but  a  shiver  ran  down  my  spine.  I 
had  trod  that  road  of  suffering.  I  plainly  saw 
that  man  working  all  his  life  saving  and  struggling 
for  what  he  had.  With  his  business  acumen  he  saw 
the  possibilities  in  this  territory  that  was  not  occu- 
pied by  the  Standard  Oil.  He  no  doubt  thought, 
as  I  used  to  think,  that  this  was  the  land  of  the 
free,  and  started  in  to  use  his  God-given  abilities 
in  the  direction  and  business  that  he  so  well  under- 
stood. Then  he  saw  the  business  grow — what  a 
pleasure  to  know  that  the  little  family  would  have 


THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE  19 

all  that  he  in  early  life  had  planned  and  hoped  for 
them!  Then  comes  the  offer  that  he  feels  justified 
in  refusing,  followed  by  the  years  of  suffering — 
the  loss  of  his  entire  capital;  broken-hearted,  and 
perhaps  too  late  to  start  life  a  second  time  (as 
I  did),  and  only  disappointment  and  poverty  to 
await  him  in  his  old  age — all  from  no  fault  of  his, 
only  on  account  of  the  hungry  maw  of  these  busi- 
ness cannibals  that  live  on  the  blood  of  others. 

Ask  why  this  man  failed,  and  they  will  no 
doubt  tell  you  (as  they  generally  do  in  my  case) 
that  he  was  not  careful  and  conservative,  and  was 
extended  in  all  directions.  These  destroyers  of 
American  business  men  attend  to  all  details.  They 
even  have  some  one  to  send  out  the  proper  obituary 
remarks  about  those  whom  they  have  devoured. 
They  also  control  the  commercial  agencies.  They 
sent  a  man  to  Europe  this  year  to  destroy  the  confi- 
dence of  my  friends.  There  is  nothing  neglected 
by  this  system  to  make  the  ruin  of  their  helpless 
victims  complete. 

What  I  am  telling  you  in  this  story  is  my  own 
personal  experience,  but  I  want  you  to  read  the 
following,  by  Samuel  Untermeyer  in  the  New 
York  World  of  July  2,  1912: 

"Whether  the  so-called  money  trust  inquiry  shall 
be  continued  depends  largely  on  the  fate  of  the 
pending  bill  to  amend  the  banking  law  that  has 
passed  the  House  and  been  hung  up  two  months  in 


20  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

the  Finance  Committee  of  the  Senate.  If  the  big 
financial  interests  opposing  the  inquiry  can  prevent 
action  on  the  bill  by  misrepresentation  or  by  the 
exercise  of  their  secret  power  it  will  be  killed.  They 
don't  appreciate  the  way  the  inquiry  was  begun. 
In  fact,  they  are  protesting  loudly  that  it  is  being 
conducted  in  an  in  judicial  way,  which  means  that 
they  realize  that  it  will  not  be  innocuous,  but  will 
develop  hidden  facts. 

"I  believe  these  gentlemen  are  mistaken  in  boast- 
ing that  they  can  kill  the  inquiry  either  by  having 
Congress  withhold  funds  or  by  throttling  the  neces- 
sary legislation.  The  time  for  that  sort  of  thing 
has  passed.  We  are  entering  upon  a  new  era  in 
government,  and  legislators  who  want  to  stay  in 
public  life  are  taking  due  notice  of  that  fact. 

"The  committee  has  not  touched  upon  the  vital 
subject,  and  cannot  do  so  until  its  powers  are  en- 
larged. My  acceptance  of  a  retainer  was  expressly 
conditioned  on  this  power  being  secured. 

"The  committee  has,  however,  developed  some 
startling  facts  bearing  on  the  existence,  potency 
and  growing  concentration  of  the  money  power, 
already  demonstrating  the  necessity  for  prompt 
remedial  legislation.  It  is  impossible  to  analyze 
this  important  testimony  within  the  compass  of 
an  interview.  It  has  been  proven,  among  other 
things : 

WHAT  HAS  BEEN  SHOWN  SO  FAR 

"1.  That  the  Clearing  House  Committee  of  New 


THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE  21 

York  possesses  and  exercises  arbitrary  and  irre- 
sponsible power  over  the  finances  of  the  country 
that  is  dangerous  in  the  extreme  and  should 
be  subjected  t6  legislative  and  judicial  control. 
Around  it  gravitates  the  entire  financial  system  of 
the  country. 

"2.  That  these  men  are  in  turn  dominated  by  a 
few  bankers  who  are  not  members  of  the  Clear- 
ing House  and  not  officially  connected  with  its 
members. 

"3.  That  it  reserves  the  power  to  arbitrarily  pre- 
vent the  forming  of  new  banks  and  trust  companies 
and  to  prevent  all  competition  by  refusing  its  privi- 
leges of  membership,  without  which  business  can- 
not be  successfully  done. 

"4.  That  under  its  self -constituted  regulations  it 
can  ruin  any  solvent  banking  institution  by  with- 
drawing clearance  privileges  without  notice,  reasons 
or  redress.  Its  opportunities  for  favoritism  and 
oppression  are  endless. 

"5.  That  in  a  panic  it  destroyed  a  number  of 
solvent  banks  that  would  have  been  saved  under  a 
proper  system  responsible  to  legal  control.  Those 
banks,  after  being  put  out  of  business  by  the  action 
of  the  Clearing  House  Committee,  paid  their  depos- 
itors in  full  even  in  liquidation  and  had  a  surplus 
of  from  $50  to  $150  per  share  for  the  stockholders. 

"6.  That  ninety-four  banks  and  trust  companies 
that  are  members  of  the  Clearing  House  or  amen- 
able to  its  rules  have  been  compelled  under  penalty 


22  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

of  expulsion  and  ruin  to  become  parties  to  a  crim- 
inal conspiracy  whereby  they  were  deprived  of  inde- 
pendence in  dealing  with  customers  and  were  re- 
quired to  make  uniform  excessive  charges  for 
collecting  out-of-town  checks  amounting  to  an  an- 
nual tax  of  many  millions  of  dollars  upon  the  busi- 
ness of  the  country.  Until  this  regulation  was  put 
into  force  it  was  customary  to  make  such  collections 
without  charge,  but  this  is  now  forbidden  under 
severe  penalties. 

"7.  That  the  association  maintains  a  bureau  of 
staff  accountants  who,  acting  under  the  direction 
of  the  committee,  have  the  right  to  examine  into 
the  accounts  and  affairs  of  all  the  members.  Thus, 
the  committee  can  at  all  times  inform  itself  of  all 
loans  and  collaterals,  and  is  able  to  exercise  a 
power  to  dislodge  collateral  that  is  dangerous  to 
the  community. 

"9.  The  relations  of  the  Stock  Exchange  to  the 
country's  financial  system  have  been  shown  to  some 
extent,  but  that,  as  well  as  the  branch  of  the  inquiry 
relating  to  the  Clearing  House,  is  unfinished. 

INFLUENCE  OF  THE  PRESS 

"No  investigation  ever  undertaken  in  Congress 
or  by  any  government  has  been  of  such  far-reaching 
importance.  If  properly  conducted,  it  should  point 
the  way  to  fundamental  reforms  in  our  financial  and 
industrial  systems,  but  it  will  require  many  months 
of  laborious,  painstaking  investigation  and  the  cor- 
dial aid  of  the  community.  Above  all,  it  will  need 


THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE  23 

the  enthusiastic  support  of  the  independent  press  of 
the  country  to  make  known  the  true  facts  as  devel- 
oped and  to  offset  the  desperate  efforts  of  men  who 
dread  the  inquiry  and  are  making  through  a  part 
of  the  metropolitan  press  attempts  to  destroy  its 
effect  by  wilful  misrepresentation,  suppression  of 
testimony  or  attempts  to  ridicule  its  importance. 

"The  influence  of  these  men  over  the  press 
through  vast  advertising  patronage  and  power  to 
assist  the  speculations  of  the  newspaper  agents  in 
the  financial  district  is  an  important  factor  in  this 
situation.  We  have  already  felt  its  force  in  its 
garbled  reports  of  the  testimony  of  Vanderlip  and 
others. 

"The  policy  of  many  papers  has  been  dictated  by 
financial  needs.  Others  run  that  way  from  choice. 
There  are  only  a  few  New  York  papers  with  the 
courage,  independence  and  disregard  of  financial 
penalties  that  the  World  has  shown  in  its  attitude 
toward  the  investigation. 

"I  am  satisfied,  however,  that  when  the  commit- 
tee takes  up  the  main  branch  of  the  inquiry  the 
facts  that  will  be  developed  and  the  precedent  set 
by  a  few  independent  papers  will  force  just  treat- 
ment by  the  others.  The  control  of  a  part  of  the 
metropolitan  press  by  the  money  power  is  one  of  its 
most  important  agencies  not  the  least  dangerous  to 
the  community." 

Now,  please  reread  the  above  article,  as  I  shall 


24  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

refer  to  it  often,  and  I  want  to  impress  it  thoroughly 
upon  your  mind.  Remember  this  statement  of  Mr. 
Untermeyer  is  the  statement  of  a  great  corporation 
attorney  of  New  York,  chosen  by  the  Congressional 
Committee  to  investigate  the  Money  Trust  as  their 
attorney.  Read  what  Mr.  Untermeyer  says  this 
Money  Trust  does  to  solvent  banks  in  times  of 
panic ;  then  you  will  more  readily  believe  what  I  am 
going  to  tell  you  of  what  they  did  to  the  Guardian 
Trust  Company,  of  which  I  was  President.  They 
have  no  consideration  for  any  one  in  their  path.  The 
widow  and  orphan,  the  poor  and  the  weak,  are  all 
trampled  down.  In  the  Guardian  Trust  Company 
were  many  whose  holdings  represented  their  entire 
life's  savings.  They  had  received  regular  dividends 
for  years,  as  no  trust  company  in  Missouri  had 
probably  up  to  this  time  paid  better  dividends  than 
this  company.  But  they  were  all  robbed  just  to 
reach  me.  Is  it  any  wonder  that  some  of  the  politi- 
cal parties  are  endeavoring  to  prove  that  none  of 
the  ill-gotten  gains  of  "The  System"  were  used  in 
their  former  campaigns?  But  we  know  that  they 
were,  and  by  this  means  these  men  received  immu- 
nity from  their  misdeeds  which  have  honeycombed 
the  life  of  the  nation. 

I  sometimes  have  wondered  if  when  Edward 
Harriman  was  dying  in  his  partially  completed 
palace  at  Ardmore,  it  added  one  jot  to  his  peace  of 
mind  to  think  that  he  had  for  years  deprived  me 
of  my  rightful  place  as  the  upbuilder  of  Port 


THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE  25 

Arthur,  of  which  I  was  the  creator;  or  that  he 
had  for  five  years  controlled  the  destinies  of  the 
Kansas  City  Southern  Railroad,  which  he  had 
helped  seize  from  me  and  my  stockholders  just  as 
the  last  spike  was  driven.  And  I  wonder  if  his 
wife  and  children  are  any  happier  in  the  increased 
possessions  which  were  gained  in  this  way.  As  I 
lately  drove  past  Ardmore,  I  thought  of  that  silent 
tomb  and  thanked  God  that  I  was  the  one  who  had 
been  wronged  and  not  the  one  responsible  for  the 
destructive  work  recorded  in  the  coming  chapters. 

I  wonder  if  when  John  Gates  was  dying  in 
Paris  and  was  told  that  he  could  live  only  a  few 
days,  did  it  make  his  pillow  any  easier  to  think  that 
he  had  helped  Harriman  and  others  to  take  from 
me  my  Railroad  and  Trust  Company  as  revenge 
for  my  refusal  to  help  him  steal  from  innocent 
people.  Both  of  these  men  died  long  before  their 
time.  Both  of  them  were  useful  men  in  the  world. 
They  would  have  been  rich  enough  if  they  had  used 
only  honest  methods.  There  is  nothing  to  be  gained 
by  dishonest  work.  Its  seeming  profits  are  only  a 
delusion;  such  gain  is  really  a  loss.  It  never  can 
bring  peace  and  happiness. 

You  will  read  in  the  coming  chapters  on  the 
Guardian  Trust  Company  and  the  Kansas  City 
Southern  Railroad,  how  the  committee,  of  which 
Messrs.  Gates,  Harriman  and  Thalman  were  the 
prime  movers,  broke  promise  after  promise  which 
they  had  made  in  print.  Not  one  of  these  men  is 


26  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

alive  to-day.  Such  dishonest  work  starts  a  law  of 
retribution  which  seems  to  shorten  life,  and  if,  as 
the  Good  Book  says,  "The  sins  of  the  fathers  are 
visited  upon  the  children  even  to  the  third  and 
fourth  generation/'  what  an  inheritance! 

Notwithstanding  the  awful  struggle  which  I  shall 
relate  in  the  coming  chapters,  a  struggle  which 
made  my  work  sometimes  almost  impossible,  and 
in  the  case  of  the  Orient  Railroad,  made  it  cost 
millions  more  than  it  otherwise  would  have  cost, 
practically  all  the  companies  that  I  have  organ- 
ized and  started  have  been  a  success,  have  made  big 
money,  and  their  existence  justified,  and  hardly  a 
loss  would  have  been  recorded  had  it  not  been 
for  the  awful  work  of  these  financial  cannibals. 
You  will  read  in  this  book  of  the  needless  receiver- 
ship of  the  Kansas  City  Southern,  the  receivership 
being  granted  at  midnight  on  a  thirty-four  dollar 
printing  bill,  the  only  object  in  bringing  the  receiv- 
ership being  to  depress  the  securities.  You  will 
also  read  of  the  receivership  of  the  four  Northern 
roads  of  which  I  was  President,  granted  at  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning  for  the  sole  purpose  of  help- 
ing John  Gates  make  money  by  the  depressing  of 
securities.  You  will  also  read  of  the  receivership 
of  the  Guardian  Trust  Company,  a  solvent  com- 
pany with  no  deposits,  the  receivership  being 
asked  for  only  to  prevent  my  building  the  Orient 
Railroad. 

As  Elbert  Hubbard  says:    "Few  can  pay  the 


THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE  27 

price  of  hemlock,  and  few  deserve  the  Cross."  But 
when  you  finish  reading  this  story  of  persecution, 
remember  there  are  many  others  who  could  tell 
pathetic  stories  of  business  ruined  by  these  mil- 
lionaires, who,  as  Untermeyer  says,  "destroyed  a 
number  of  solvent  banks  in  times  of  panic,"  and 
who  from  the  recent  exposes  in  the  papers  we  learn 
bought  Congressmen,  Senators,  and  almost  con- 
trolled the  President  by  their  large  contributions, 
knowing  that  owning  the  banking  credit  of  the 
land  as  they  did,  any  person  whom  they  wished  to 
destroy  was  helpless.  If  this  story  of  my  suffering 
during  these  past  years  will  blaze  the  way  for  free- 
dom in  this  supposedly  free  country,  and  bring 
about  a  higher  standard  in  business;  if  this  story 
will  help  to  impress  upon  our  young  men  just 
entering  the  business  world  the  value  of  the  Golden 
Rule,  my  suffering  will  not  have  been  in  vain. 

When  we  went  to  war  with  the  South,  no  white 
man  was  a  slave.  The  war  was  to  free  the  colored 
man.  No  great  monopolies  owned  and  controlled 
the  business  of  the  country,  even  in  slavery  days.  I 
loved  to  develop,  and  the  great  Southwest  attracted 
my  attention.  That  section  of  the  country  had  as 
much  right  to  have  Stilwell  and  Dickinson  develop 
and  improve  it  as  the  Northwest  had  to  have  the 
constructive  work  of  James  J.  Hill,  and  it  was  a 
national  crime  that  we  were  not  let  alone  to  carry 
out  this  work  unmolested. 

President  Diaz  said  to  me  a  few  years  ago: 


28  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

"Senor  Stilwell,  I  cannot  understand  how  any 
nation  can  treat  a  great  constructor  in  the  scan- 
dalous way  that  your  nation  treats  you.  Any 
other  nation  would  respect  and  help  a  man  who 
had  done  what  you  have  done  for  your  country.  I 
can  assure  you,"  he  continued,  "that  a  number  of 
bankers  have  tried  by  personal  interview  and  let- 
ters to  get  me  to  cancel  your  concessions  and  ruin 
your  great  enterprise.  While  I  am  President, 
this  shall  not  be  done."  And  he  added:  "We  have 
adopted  the  policy  of  burning  the  letters  of  your 
enemies  and  filing  the  letters  of  your  friends." 

Before  I  commence  this  story  of  financial  canni- 
balism, I  want  to  give  you  a  synopsis  of  my  work 
so  that  you  may  keep  it  in  your  mind  as  you  read 
the  succeeding  chapters,  that  you  may  decide  what 
is  the  greatest  asset  of  a  nation,  the  man  who  builds 
cities,  railroads,  harbors,  reclaims  deserts  and  drains 
swamps,  or  these  men  who,  as  Untermeyer  said, 
"destroyed  a  number  of  banks  in  times  of  panic." 
The  companies  that  I  created  and  raised  all  the 
original  capital  for  now  employ  about  twenty  thou- 
sand people,  which  means  that  at  least  eighty  thou- 
sand people  receive  their  living  from  companies 
which  I  created,  the  combined  pay  roll  of  which 
amounts  to  about  thirty  millions  of  dollars  per  year. 

This  is  only  a  part  of  the  benefit  I  have  brought 
to  mankind.  There,  out  on  the  Western  plains,  I 
could  show  you  thousands  of  homes  that  I  have  been 
the  pathfinder  for.  Banks  and  business  thrived 


THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE  29 

where  I  had  pushed  back  the  cattle  ranges,  and 
this  work  of  city  building  was  done  so  quickly  and 
quietly  that  it  was  like  pulling  a  great  carpet  down 
over  the  West,  with  its  cities  and  farms,  to  take  the 
place  of  the  boundless  prairies,  with  their  lonely 
cowpunchers  and  their  herds.  It  was  a  great,  en- 
nobling work,  and  Stilwell  and  Dickinson  under- 
stood it,  and  from  this  work  flowed  great  rivers 
of  commerce  and  industry,  their  golden  streams 
turned  life  into  the  wholesale  and  retail  trade  of 
the  West,  and  from  the  benefit  derived  from  this 
pulsating  stream  of  commerce,  buildings  arose 
where  none  had  been  before,  and  stories  were  added 
to  existing  buildings.  But,  on  the  other  hand  were 
men  bent  on  ruin.  They  ran  Ruin  Departments. 
They  had  experts  to  track  down  and  trip  up  all  who 
did  not  pay  tribute  to  them.  They  had  all  the 
habits  of  civilization,  but  those  habits  only  covered 
corrupt  dealings  and  corrupt  lives.  They  thought 
air  men  had  their  price,  and  from  the  late  exposes 
in  the  daily  papers,  they  were,  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  right. 

The  kings  of  old  would  often  bury  alive  the 
people  they  objected  to,  cement  them  into  the  walls 
of  their  palaces,  and  take  a  few  days  at  it  so  as  not 
to  shorten  the  pleasurable  operation.  But  theirs  was 
a  merciful  plan  compared  with  the  plan  of  these 
financial  cannibals.  No  man  can  give  you  more 
accurate  information  than  I  can,  and  now  as  I 
read  the  letters  of  Mr.  Archbold  to  Senator  Pen- 


30  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

rose — as  I  see  the  great  amount  of  money  contrib- 
uted by  these  financial  cannibals — I  understand 
how  it  was  when  I  went  to  the  Department  of 
Justice  and  stated  my  case  of  persecution,  that  I 
was  told  that  nothing  could  be  done.  If  it  is  true, 
as  stated  in  the  papers  to-day  by  Senator  Penrose, 
that  the  Southern  Pacific  gave  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  to  the  Republican  Campaign  Fund; 
if  it  is  true,  as  Senator  Penrose  says,  that  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  Company  gave  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  thousand;  if  it  is  true,  as  President  W.  O.  Alli- 
son of  the  National  Reserve  Bank  told  me,  that  the 
Standard  Oil  interests  were  going  to  ruin  me,  can- 
not you  see  how  they  fixed  up  the  field?  Perhaps 
they  thought  when  they  gave  these  great  fortunes 
it  would  enable  them  to  slug  Stilwell  and  Dickinson 
to  their  hearts'  content,  enable  them  to  steal  their 
roads,  along  with  the  other  enterprises  they  might 
wish.  What  show  did  we  stand  with  our  banking 
credit  destroyed  by  the  interlocking  directors? 
With  their  bloodhounds  and  spies,  with  their  con- 
trol of  great  offices,  they  had  the  map  of  our  ruin 
complete. 

Out  West  were  two  men  striving  to  help  their 
nation,  men  who  had  lived  clean  lives,  men 
who  did  not  know  the  first  act  in  the  game  of  cor- 
ruption. In  that  golden  West  was  a  great  empire 
needing  development.  There  were  thousands  of 
chances  for  the  young  men  of  the  West  to  go  into 
this  new  territory.  There  cities  would  spring  up; 


THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE  31 

all  would  be  benefited  by  this  work  that  gave  to 
all  and  took  from  no  one.  On  the  other  side  were 
unprincipled  men,  men  connected  with  great  banks, 
with  their  roots  of  influence  reaching  all  over  the 
land;  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  they 
had  bought  Senators  and  Congressmen,  and  no 
doubt  owned  the  United  States  Comptroller,  or 
at  least  part  of  his  force.  They  had  contributed 
perhaps  a  million  in  different  ways  to  the  party 
in  power. 

They  had  in  reality  bought  the  United  States 
as  a  private  preserve.  They  personally  could 
not  be  molested.  Some  of  their  companies  the 
Government  must  proceed  against,  but  they  per- 
sonally could  not  be  hurt.  At  least  this  much 
must  be  done  or  the  people  would  rise  up,  and  so  the 
machinery  of  the  Government  was  stopped,  as  this 
handful  of  rich  men  had  interlocked  their  power 
and  influence  and  practically  debauched  the  nation 
that  they  might  prey,  not  on  the  high  seas,  as  the 
pirates  did  of  old,  but  prey  unmolested  on  any 
enterprise  that  they  wished.  So  what  show  had 
these  two  men  out  West,  building  this  great  road, 
adding  millions  to  the  wealth  of  the  West,  adding 
greatness  to  Kansas  City,  Wichita  and  other  cities  ? 
How  could  they  work  against  men  who  had  bought, 
with  their  corrupt  money,  the  power  of  the  nation 
for  righteous  government,  and  a  nation  with  a 
hundred  million  clean-minded  people  fast  asleep 
while  a  handful  of  men  were  moving  back  the  hands 


32  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

of  civilization  a  score  of  years,  forcing  men  like 
Stilwell  and  Dickinson  to  drop  their  great  work 
just  as  the  golden  dawn  of  success  was  brightening 
the  sky  of  honest  endeavor? 

After  the  above  was  written,  I  read  the  following 
in  the  American  of  August  23,  1912,  a  wonderful 
coincidence,  as  the  ideas  conveyed  are  the  same  as 
in  my  chapter,  and  is  just  what  by  experience  I 
have  found  to  be  the  case: 

"The  letters  show  the  oil  trust  is  the  Government. 
They  show  how  the  trust  dictates  appointments; 
how  the  trust  directed  the  investigation  of  itself  by 
a  Government  commission;  how  the  trust  assured 
the  escape  of  witnesses  in  the  inquiry ;  how  the  trust 
framed  laws  to  be  passed  in  the  Senate  for  'control' 
of  itself  and  other  corporations." 

The  following,  from  Frenzied  Finance,  by 
Thomas  W.  Lawson,  so  agrees  with  my  ideas 
that  I  take  the  liberty  of  copying  it : 

"To  Penitence :  that  those  whose  deviltry  is  exposed 
within  its  pages  may  see  in  a  true  light  the 
wrongs  they  have  wrought — and  repent. 

To  Punishment:  that  the  unpenalized  crimes  of 
which  it  is  the  chronicle  may  appear  in  such 
hideousness  to  the  world  as  forever  to  disgrace 
their  perpetrators. 

To  Penitence :  that  the  transgressors,  learning  the 
error  of  their  ways,  may  reform. 


THE  SIBERIA  OF  FINANCE  33 

To  Punishment :  that  the  sins  of  the  century  crying 
to  heaven  for  vengeance  may  on  earth  be  visited 
with  condemnation  stern  enough  to  halt  greed 
at  the  kill. 

To  Punishment :  that  public  indignation  may  be  so 
aroused  against  the  practices  of  high  finance 
that  it  shall  come  to  be  as  culpable  to  graft  and 
cozen  with  the  law  as  it  is  lawless  today  to 
counterfeit  and  steal. 

To  Penitence :  that  in  the  minds  of  all  who  read  this 
eventful  history  there  may  grow  up  a  knowledge 
and  a  conviction  that  the  gaining  of  vast  wealth 
is  not  worth  the  sacrifice  of  manhood,  and  that 
poverty  and  abstinence  with  honor  are  better 
wTorth  having  than  millions  and  luxury  at  the 
cost  of  candor  and  rectitude." 


CHAPTER   II 

WHAT  OTHERS  THINK 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  a  promi- 
nent newspaper  writer,  sent  me  the  day  before  my 
talk  on  the  Money  Trust  at  Carnegie  Hall.  It  is  so 
apt  I  take  pleasure  in  offering  it  to  my  readers,  so 
that  as  they  read  the  following  chapters  they  can 
have  my  view-point  on  the  awful  conditions 
of  to-day,  the  findings  of  Samuel  Untermeyer, 
and  also  the  opinion  of  this  newspaper  man — these 
ideas,  the  ideas  of  a  builder,  the  ideas  of  a  great 
corporation  attorney,  the  ideas  of  a  newspaper  man 
of  New  York : 

"A.  E.  Stilwell, 

New  York. 
"Dear  Mr.  Stilwell: 

"In  pagan  days  it  was  the  custom  to  propitiate 
the  gods.  The  gods  were  simply  idols.  It  seems 
absurd  that  rational  men  and  women  should  have 
made  sacrifices  at  such  shrines.  But  we  are  worse 
than  the  heathen,  for  we  have  set  up  gods,  and  more 
powerful  gods,  and  have  invested  them  with  more 
potency,  more  power  for  evil  or  for  good,  than  ever 
did  the  pagans. 

34 


WHAT  OTHERS  THINK  35 

"The  greatest  power  in  America  today  is  the 
money  god.  He  rules  the  Government;  he  rules 
the  factory;  he  rules  the  railroad,  the  farm,  the 
home.  The  center  of  Government  of  the  United 
States  is  not  in  Washington.  It  is  in  Wall  Street ! 
From  every  section  of  this  broad  land  of  ours,  men 
who  think  they  are  free,  men  who  pride  themselves 
on  this  being  a  republic,  come  with  their  gifts  in 
their  hands  and  abase  themselves  before  this  money 
god. 

"You  cannot  build  a  mile  of  railroad  in  the 
United  States  today  without  permission  from  the 
money  god.  You  cannot  establish  a  great  industry 
anywhere  in  the  United  States  unless  you  have  the 
sanction  of  the  money  god.  This  is  not  a  republic. 
It  is  a  money  oligarchy.  It  is  the  most  absolute 
money  monarchy  the  world  has  ever  known.  It  has 
the  finest  working  system  that  big  business  ever 
has  known.  It  levies  tribute  on  rich  and  poor.  The 
greatest  industry  pays  a  price  to  the  money  system 
for  protection,  and  the  most  wretched  tenement 
dweller  pays  a  price  to  the  money  system  for  the 
privilege  of  living. 

"You  and  I  have  raised  our  hands  and  our  eyes 
in  holy  horror  at  the  stories  of  the  police  system 
— the  horrible  system  of  bribery  and  corruption 
that  evil  men  pay  to  the  officers  of  the  law  who 
are  sworn  to  enforce  the  law.  You  and  I  have 
read  of  the  protection-money  paid  for  the  privilege 
to  practice  vice  and  crime.  We  have  thought  this 


86  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

was  the  meanest  of  blood  money.  But  how  does 
it  compare  with  the  blood  money  of  Wall  Street 
— the  blood  money  exacted  by  the  great  gods  of  the 
money  system? 

"The  largest  amount  ever  collected  by  the  most 
powerful  head  of  the  police  system  was  picayune, 
paltry,  not  to  be  thought  of,  in  comparison  with 
the  price  paid  to  one  of  the  money  gods  for  one 
job!  He  got  eighty  millions  of  dollars. 

"Can  you  conceive  of  what  $80,000,000  repre- 
sents? We  have  had  some*  great  men  in  this 
United  States.  We  have  had  George  Washing- 
ton, Thomas  Jefferson,  Andrew  Jackson,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  William  McKinley,  Grover  Cleveland, 
Theodore  Roosevelt,  William  Howard  Taft.  We 
have  had  Edison;  we  have  had  Stevens;  we  have 
had  Field;  we  have  had  Westinghouse ;  we  have 
had  Morse.  But  all  the  earnings  of  all  these  great 
men,  all  the  products  of  their  hands  and  of  thek* 
brains,  brought  less  to  them  than  the  work  of  one 
of  the  Money  Trust  in  the  organization  of  one  of 
the  great  Trusts. 

"And  you  are  paying  for  it!    Think  of  it! 

"I  cite  this  as  one  example  only,  because  it  is 
a  significant  one.  I  have  no  quarrel  with  a  man 
for  the  amount  of  money  he  may  get  for  his  work. 
But  I  have  a  quarrel  with  a  man  who  uses  his 
power  to  prevent  others  from  working. 
"Yours  truly." 


CHAPTER  III 

MY  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK 

I  wish  to  give  you,  my  readers,  some  idea  of 
the  constructive  work  I  have  done  during  the  last 
twenty-four  years,  but  not  from  any  sense  of  ego- 
tism, as  no  man  is  to  be  praised  for  the  work  he 
does;  it  is  only  nature  working  through  him  to 
take  dominion  of  the  earth.  In  any  country  but 
where  this  Money  Trust  dominates,  I  would  be 
one  of  the  nation's  leading  men,  respected,  with 
credit.  I  should  not  be  on  the  "Black  List,"  as 
Dumont  Clark  told  me  I  was,  or,  as  you  will  read 
later,  slated  for  ruin,  with  all  my  companies,  as 
the  President  of  the  National  Reserve  told  me  I 
was  to  be.  At  the  time  he  told  me  this,  I  could 
hardly  believe  his  statements,  but  what  has  oc- 
curred since  leads  me  to  believe  he  knew  what  he 
was  talking  about.  Then  when  I  remember  what 
Samuel  Untermeyer  says,  "that  in  a  panic  it 
destroyed  a  number  of  solvent  banks,"  I  realize 
people  who  do  this  will  stop  at  nothing. 

These  millionaires  do  this,  without  a  thought  for 
the  anguish  of  the  thousands  of  stockholders,  the 
depositors,  with  no  reckoning  of  the  heart-aches, 
the  distress,  and  often  death  from  worry.  These 

37 

453374 


38  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

men,  Untermeyer  says,  do  so ;  these  men  of  untold 
wealth,  who  live  in  palaces. 

And  these  same  men  who  for  fifteen  years  have 
followed  me,  did  they  know  I  had  refused  to  do  the 
bidding  of  Kountz,  Thalmann  and  Gates,  and  must 
be  ruined?  Like  the  pirates  of  Tarifa,  Spain,  of 
the  years  of  long  ago,  do  they  demand  tribute  from 
all  American  industries  and  business  men?  And 
must  these  business  men,  when  that  tribute  is  not 
willingly  given,  as  in  these  olden  days,  walk  the 
plank  of  business  ruin? 

It  is  said  that  when  the  pirates  of  Tarifa,  Spain, 
ruled  the  sea,  all  ships  they  stripped  must  have  the 
gold  piled  up  on  the  decks  in  readiness  for  these 
pirates,  and  if  the  captain  even  scowled  when  the 
ship  was  looted,  he  must  walk  the  plank  or  hang 
at  the  yard  arms. 

Can  you  see  any  difference  between  the  treatment 
of  the  long  ago  and  now?  Then,  the  pirates  were 
hardy  dare-devils,  red-shirted,  blear-eyed ;  now  they 
are  models  of  neatness  and  exact  manners,  and  live 
in  palaces.  But  the  victim  can  see  no  difference  in 
the  results,  and  neither  can  stockholders  or  depos- 
itors of  banks.  Samuel  Untermeyer  says  that  "in 
a  panic  the  Money  Trust  destroyed  a  number  of 
solvent  banks.'* 

These  modern  pirates  endow  hospitals,  churches, 
and  contribute  to  the  Free  Ice  Fund;  yet  some  of 
these  men  caused  Moffat,  that  great  man  of  Den- 


MY  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK  39 

ver,  to  die  of  a  broken  heart,  because  they  would  not 
allow  him  to  finance  his  great  road. 

Now,  I  want  my  readers  to  take  a  glance  at  the 
constructive  work  I  have  done.  All  of  these  com- 
panies I  gave  birth  to ;  for  all  of  them  I  personally 
secured  the  greater  part  of  the  money. 

I  founded  the  Guardian  Trust  Company;  built 
the  Kansas  City  Suburban  Belt  Road;  built  the 
Kansas  City  Southern;  constructed  the  Port 
Arthur  Ship  Canal;  started  a  line  of  steel  steam- 
ers from  Port  Arthur  to  England  and  Holland. 
I  started  a  line  of  two  steamers  from  Port  Arthur 
to  ports  in  Mexico;  secured  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars  for  the  Sioux  City  stock  yards;  founded 
the  National  Surety  Company,  now  of  New  York, 
and  was  its  head  officer  for  five  years;  built  the 
first  modern  office  building  in  Sioux  City ;  financed 
the  Great  Central  Coal  and  Coke  Company  of 
Kansas  City ;  built  the  Kansas  City  Northern  con- 
necting road;  rebuilt  the  Omaha  and  St.  Louis; 
rebuilt  the  Quincy,  Omaha  and  Kansas  City  Road. 
I  built  the  Kansas  City  and  Eastern;  built  nearly 
one  thousand  miles  of  the  Kansas  City,  Mexico  and 
Orient  Railroad.  In  Kansas  City  I  built  five  office 
buildings,  one  theater,  and  laid  out  Janssen  Park 
and  Fairmont  Park.  I  built  the  Kansas  City  and 
Independence  Air  Line  Road ;  got  the  charter  and 
was  first  president  of  the  Wyandotte  Street  Elec- 
tric Line,  Kansas  City.  I  erected  over  one  hun- 
dred homes  in  different  parts  of  the  West,  and  laid 


40  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

out  two  of  the  most  beautiful  additions  to  the  City 
of  Mexico ;  built  one  of  the  office  buildings  of  that 
city  and  one  of  the  hotels.  I  located  Procter  & 
Gamble's  plant  in  Kansas  City,  and  helped  finance 
the  Kansas  City  Cotton  Mills  of  that  city.  I  started 
the  Port  Arthur  Rice  Farm;  planted  twelve  miles 
of  orchards  in  Arkansas ;  started  and  finished  great 
irrigation  enterprises  in  Western  Texas,  near  Fort 
Stockton;  bought  the  land  and  founded  scores  of 
towns  and  cities  in  different  parts  of  the  West. 
Among  the  leading  ones  are  Stilwell,  Mena, 
DeQueen,  Fairview,  Carmen,  Hamlin  and  Port 
Arthur. 

For  all  of  these  projects,  and  for  many  others, 
every  detail  was  carried  out  under  my  direction. 

I  formed  the  Liberty  Bell  Mining  Company  of 
Colorado  and  was  its  president  for  years.  The 
mine  produced  one-eighteenth  of  the  gold  of  Colo- 
rado each  year,  and  has  paid  in  dividends  one  mil- 
lion, five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  I  founded  and 
was  president  for  years  of  the  United  States  and 
British  Columbia  Development  Company.  This 
company,  with  six  hundred  thousand  dollars  capi- 
tal, has  paid  one  million,  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  dividends. 

I  built  the  Water  Power  and  Electric  Light 
Plant  at  Joplin,  Missouri,  and  the  Water  Works 
of  Carrolton,  Missouri.  I  colonized  thirty  thousand 
acres  of  land  on  the  line  of  the  Texas  Pacific  Rail- 
road, and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  on  the 


MY  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK  41 

Kansas  City  Southern  and  Kansas  City,  Mexico 
&  Orient. 

I  founded  and  was  president  for  years  of  the 
Horse  Show  of  Kansas  City.  I  founded  and  was 
president  of  the  great  Land  Show  of  New  York 
last  year.  In  Florida  you  will  find  a  farm  that  is 
thirty  miles  around  that  I  financed. 

So  my  beneficent  work  has  reached  from  the 
mines  of  Colorado  on  the  West  to  the  great  Water- 
way of  Jamaica  Bay  on  the  northeast,  and  from 
Jamaica  Bay  to  Florida  on  the  southeast;  from 
Sioux  City  on  the  North  to  the  City  of  Mexico  on 
the  South;  and  had  this  really  been  the  Land  of 
the  Free,  in  place  of  twenty  thousand  people  now 
being  employed  by  companies  that  I  have  founded, 
there  would  no  doubt  be  fifty  thousand.  From  any 
number  of  these  companies  which  I  financed,  I 
never  received  one  dollar  reward,  and  never  ex- 
pected any.  The  only  reward  I  had  was  the  satis- 
faction that  I  was  bringing  out  of  the  blue  ether  of 
opportunity,  chances  for  some  of  God's  children  to 
achieve  and  prosper  in  this  land,  and  these  jewels 
of  brotherly  love  need  no  safety  deposit  vaults  to 
hold  them,  no  detectives  to  guard  them,  but  are  the 
mind  and  soul's  possessions,  where  "rust  doth  not 
corrupt  nor  thieves  break  through  and  steal." 

The  companies  I  founded  are  today  ninety  per 
cent  of  them  prosperous.  They  employ  thousands 
of  men  and  furnish  livings  for  many  thousands  of 
people.  There  have  been  few  failures  in  my  record, 


42  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

except  those  forced  upon  me  by  people  wishing  to 
ruin  me  and  mine. 

These  companies  to  which  I  gave  life  have  paid 
in  dividends  and  interest  since  I  founded  them  over 
twenty  million  dollars. 

Now,  for  which  of  these  good  works  do  they 
stone  me? 

There  can  be  only  three  reasons  for  the  opposi- 
tion I  have  met : 

First.  The  United  States  is  given  out  to  differ- 
ent banking  interests  for  railroad  development; 
that  is,  there  is  some  understanding  whereby  bank- 
ing interests  agree  to  a  mutual  division  of  certain 
sections  of  the  United  States,  and  these  banks  have 
combined  to  sandbag  and  ruin  any  outsider  who 
attempts  to  build  in  these  zones.  I  not  being  con- 
nected with  either  side,  the  moment  I  started  the 
Kansas  City,  Southern  &  Orient  road,  I  auto- 
matically started  all  the  machinery  of  all  these  peo- 
ple to  compass  the  ruin  of  me  and  my  companies, 
and  as  one  step  in  that  direction  the  ruin  of  the 
Guardian  Trust  Company  was  decided  upon. 

Second.  They  coveted  my  different  roads  be- 
cause of  the  great  geographical  strength  of  their 
location. 

Third.  They  thought  the  example  of  some  inde- 
pendent man's  making  a  business  of  railroad  build- 
ing in  the  United  States  would  so  encourage  others 
that  if  I  succeeded  there  would  be  numerous  inde- 
pendent companies.  There  are  many  bankers  who 


MY  CONSTRUCTIVE  WORK  43 

know  that  what  I  say  is  true;  they  are  above  such 
methods ;  they  deplore  them.  But  to  say  one  word, 
to  remonstrate,  would  put  them  also  on  the  Black 
List. 

One  of  the  members  of  the  New  York  Stock 
Exchange  told  me  that  my  experience  was  only 
one  in  hundreds;  that  he  had  given  up  his  Wall 
Street  office,  for  he  could  no  longer  bear  to  see 
such  things  being  done. 

But  in  the  meantime,  confidence  is  being  shat- 
tered. Today  seats  on  the  Stock  Exchange  are 
selling  lower  than  a  few  years  ago,  when  this  was 
a  fair  field  and  no  favorites,  and  the  Stock  Ex- 
change was  the  great  security  market  of  the  United 
States,  and  not  used,  as  it  now  so  often  is,  as  a 
tool  to  crush  men  and  companies. 

Perhaps  it  is  all  right  to  regulate  business  men 
and  enterprises.  If  so,  let  us  do  it  by  legal  methods ; 
let  the  people  vote  who  these  arbitrators  shall  be, 
and  when  you  or  I  wish  to  start  an  enterprise,  let 
us  go  to  these  men  and  get  permission  to  live  and 
create.  Then  if  it  is  withheld  we  can  leave  the 
United  States  for  more  favored  lands,  or  retire 
from  business.  Russia  is  a  haven  of  freedom  com- 
pared with  these  United  States.  I  wonder  if  in 
Russia,  in  times  of  panic,  they  destroy  solvent 
banks,  as  Samuel  Untermeyer  says  they  do  in  New 
York. 

I  can  testify  they  did  in  Kansas  City,  when  they 
wrecked  my  Guardian  Trust  Company,  and  there 


44  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

was  no  panic  at  that  time;   it  just  came  out  of  a 
clear  sky. 

But  whatever  the  reason,  the  facts  remain. 
These  things  were  done.  Whatever  the  contrib- 
uting causes,  such  methods  as  were  employed  in 
my  case  are  not  uncommon  when  the  Money  Trust 
has  an  object  in  mind,  whether  it  be  the  grabbing 
of  a  million  or  the  ruin  of  a  man. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  BUILDING  OF  MY  FIRST  ROAD 

In  1887  I  was  president  of  a  prosperous  trust 
company  in  Kansas  City,  the  second  trust  com- 
pany in  Missouri.  One  of  the  directors  was  E.  L. 
Martin,  one  of  Kansas  City's  leading  financiers, 
a  man  who  had  saved  the  city's  credit  by  paying 
out  of  his  own  pocket  the  interest  on  the  city's 
bonds  when  it  had  no  funds  to  meet  it.  I  told  him 
of  my  grandfather's  experience  in  building  rail- 
roads, and  that  I  was  making  a  study  of  railroad- 
ing, and  expected  to  take  it  up.  He  told  me  of 
a  franchise  he  had  for  building  a  belt  railroad 
with  an  entrance  to  the  city  on  Second  Street,  but 
that,  after  three  years  of  endeavor  to  find  the 
money,  he  had  given  it  up,  and  that  his  franchise 
would  expire  in  less  than  a  week.  We  went  over 
the  line,  and  I  at  once  saw  its  great  possibilities. 
That  night  we  both  left  for  Philadelphia,  and  on 
the  way  I  devised  a  plan  to  raise  the  money  and 
start  the  work  before  the  time  elapsed.  We  formed 
an  underwriting  syndicate.  Each  subscriber  to  this 
syndicate  was  to  receive  for  each  one  thousand  sub- 
scribed thirteen  hundred  and  thirty-three  dollars  of 
six  per  cent  bonds  and  two  thousand  dollars  com- 

45 


46  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

mon  stock.  When  the  road  was  afterwards  sold  to 
the  Kansas  City  Southern,  each  bond  of  the  Belt 
Line  received  thirteen  hundred  and  thirty-three  dol- 
lars of  new  Southern  bonds  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  of  the  four  per  cent  preferred  stock; 
for  each  share  of  the  common  stock  the  subscribers 
received  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  of  four  per 
cent  preferred  and  seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
of  common  stock  of  the  Kansas  City  Southern.  So 
for  each  one  thousand  dollars  invested  in  this  syn- 
dicate the  subscriber  received  seventeen  hundred 
and  seventy-nine  dollars  of  Kansas  City  Southern 
bonds,  five  hundred  dollars  of  the  preferred  stock 
and  fifteen  hundred  dollars  of  the  common  stock, 
or  a  total  of  thirty-seven  hundred  and  seventy-nine 
dollars  in  bonds  and  shares  of  the  Southern. 

The  Belt  Line  prospered  and  is  now  one  of  the 
greatest  properties  of  Kansas  City,  and  part  of 
the  Kansas  City  Southern  System.  Other  exten- 
sions were  built  under  the  name  of  the  Union  Ter- 
minal and  the  Consolidated  Terminal.  Their  five 
per  cent  bonds  were  sold  at  eighty-five  to  ninety, 
and  with  each  bond  was  given  a  bonus  of  the  Belt 
Line  stock.  In  the  consolidation  with  the  Southern 
these  bonds  of  the  Union  and  Consolidated  received 
one  thousand  dollars  in  the  new  Southern  bonds 
and  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  of  the  preferred 
stock,  showing  in  the  first  case  very  large  profits 
and  in  the  second  case  ample  profits. 

While  the  Kansas  City  Southern  was  building, 


BUILDING  MY  FIRST  ROAD  47 

Mr.  Martin  called  to  my  attention  the  great  need 
of  a  short  line  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  We  designed 
what  is  now  the  Kansas  City  Southern.  This 
formed  a  line  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  over  one  hun- 
dred miles  shorter  than  any  other  line.  To  build 
the  first  section  a  company  was  formed,  called  the 
"Philadelphia  Construction  Company."  Later,  two 
other  companies  were  formed,  called  "The  Arkan- 
sas Construction"  and  "The  Kansas  City  Terminal 
Construction  Company,"  to  build  the  other  sections. 
The  panics  of  1893  and  1896  gave  us  serious  condi- 
tions to  contend  with,  but  they  were  met,  and 
in  1896,  notwithstanding  the  panic,  we  built  one- 
fourth  of  all  the  new  mileage  constructed  in  the 
United  States. 

During  this  year,  one  of  the  darkest  in  the  his1- 
tory  of  the  United  States,  people  interested  in  our 
road  asked  me  to  write  a  report,  giving  my  estimate 
of  the  earnings  of  the  road  when  finished.  I  com- 
plied with  this  request  and  wrote  a  book  estimating 
that  the  road,  when  finished,  would  earn  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  per  day  or  five  thousand  dollars  per 
mile  per  year,  but  I  stated  that  the  road  soon  after 
being  finished  would  earn  seven  thousand  four  hun- 
dred dollars  per  mile  gross  and  would  soon  exceed 
the  earnings  per  mile  of  the  Missouri  Pacific,  Rock 
Island  or  the  M.  K.  &  T.  R.  R.,  as  the  Kansas  City 
Southern  would  be  all  main  line. 

To  prevent  me  from  finishing  this  enterprise,  that 
would  mean  so  much  for  Kansas  City,  one  of  the 


48  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

best  known  traffic  men  of  the  United  States  was 
employed  by  people  interested  in  seeing  this  road 
fail.  He  wrote  a  report  in  which  he  characterized 
my  statement  as  the  dream  of  an  unsound  mind, 
and  said  the  road  could  not  earn  four  thousand  dol- 
lars per  day.  He  said  the  Belt  Line  and  Southern 
was  a  swindle  of  gigantic  proportions — whether 
premeditated  or  not,  would  not  enter  into  his  cal- 
culations. And,  as  far  as  the  road  ever  earning 
more  than  the  Missouri  Pacific,  the  Rock  Island, 
or  the  M.  K.  &  T.,  that  was  absurd!  I  give  this 
more  in  detail  in  a  succeeding  chapter. 

But  I  here  wish  to  state  that  my  prediction  more 
than  came  true,  as  the  Southern  earnings  now  ex- 
ceed the  earnings  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  by  between 
four  thousand  and  five  thousand  dollars  per  mile 
per  year.  I  hope  the  Orient  stockholders  will, 
when  they  read  my  prediction  regarding  the  Orient 
road  earnings,  remember  how  this  derided  estimate 
of  mine  was  more  than  verified. 

When  the  Kansas  City  Southern  was  started,  all 
agricultural  industries  in  Kansas  and  other  West- 
ern states  were  languishing;  mortgages  were  being 
foreclosed  all  over  the  West.  The  railroads  were 
forcing  the  people  of  the  West  to  ship  all  grain 
fourteen  hundred  miles  to  the  East,  in  place  of 
eight  hundred  and  nine  hundred  miles  to  South- 
ern ports;  the  rates  on  grain  were  twenty-one  to 
twenty-six  cents  per  hundred ;  corn  was  some  years 


BUILDING  MY  FIRST  ROAD  49 

ten  cents  per  bushel  in  Kansas,  and  people  were 
using  it  for  fuel. 

The  rate  on  long-leaf  lumber  was  nearly  ten  cents 
per  hundred  more  to  Kansas  City  than  to  Chicago, 
and  Kansas  City  was  from  two  hundred  to  three 
hundred  miles  nearer  the  long-leaf  pine  territory. 
Seats  on  the  Kansas  City  Grain  Exchange  were 
fifty  dollars;  there  were  only  two  grain  elevators 
in  Kansas  City,  and  they  had  little  business.  Farm 
land  was  the  lowest  for  years.  Kansas  City  was 
the  center  of  an  empire,  the  greatest  on  earth,  but 
it  was  losing  in  population,  and  its  business  was 
also  decreasing  in  volume.  I  saw  the  injustice  of 
these  high  railroad  rates.  I  saw  the  city  that  I 
loved  languish.  I  saw  that  just  rates  on  lumber 
would  make  Kansas  City  the  great  lumber  market 
of  the  Southwest.  I  saw  great  lumber  companies 
thriving  in  Chicago,  made  prosperous  by  the  rail- 
road rate;  they  had  a  fair  rate  per  ton  per  mile, 
while  my  home  town  and  the  people  of  my  section 
of  the  United  States  must  pay  five  to  ten  cents 
more  per  hundred  than  the  people  of  Illinois  and 
Ohio.  Why  should  we  stand  this  injustice?  Why 
were  not  the  people  of  the  Golden  West  entitled 
to  the  same  rate  per  ton  per  mile  as  the  people  of 
Illinois  and  Ohio? 

Then  I  saw  the  great  injustice  of  the  grain  rate. 
Why  pour  sixty  to  eighty  cents  more  per  acre  into 
the  coffers  of  railroads  by  forcing  grain  to  take  a 
fourteen  hundred  mile  haul  eastward,  when  nature 


50  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

had  provided  a  great  port  less  than  a  thousand  miles 
south?  This  injustice  I  made  up  my  mind  to 
remedy  by  the  Kansas  City  Southern.  I  made  up 
my  mind  that  the  Southern  should  serve  the  people 
of  the  section  now  suffering  from  unjust  rates; 
and,  filled  with  this  idea,  I  worked  with  the  spirit 
of  a  crusader.  No  man  could  have  done  what  I  did 
in  building  the  Kansas  City  Southern — all  personal 
work — unless  he  was  inspired  by  some  other  goal 
than  profit.  The  obstacles  I  jumped  could  not  have 
been  surmounted  if  my  aim  had  not  been  imper- 
sonal. I  sank  self;  I  was  fighting  a  battle  to  free 
Kansas  City  from  the  yoke  of  unjust  rates.  I  was 
to  increase  the  value  of  all  land  in  the  West.  I  was 
to  bring  to  Kansas  great  prosperity.  Millions  of 
money  now  being  paid  to  railroads  was  to  remain  in 
Kansas,  pay  its  mortgages  and  free  its  people  from 
debt.  These  blessings  would  reach  to  Nebraska  and 
all  the  West.  Great  lumber  companies  and  coal 
companies  would  come  to  Kansas  City.  Great 
buildings  would  arise.  It  would  be  the  grain  market 
of  the  West.  Was  I  not  fighting  a  wonderful 
battle? 

This  is  the  vision  I  saw.  Would  you  not  be 
inspired  by  such  a  vision?  I  was  not  taking  from 
people.  I  was  not  taking  life  or  property.  No 
trail  of  destruction  and  death  would  follow  my  path 
of  victory,  but  the  blessings  of  justice  to  the  section 
I  loved.  Cannot  you  see,  with  such  a  vision,  what 
I  had  to  inspire  me  during  the  Baring  failure  and 


BUILDING  MY  FIRST  ROAD  61 

the  panic  of  1896?  Cannot  you  understand,  with 
such  a  vision,  how  I  could  work  as  man  could  not 
work  otherwise. 

My  visions  have  come  true.  The  picture  of 
the  blessings  to  be  conferred  shaped  itself  as 
if  by  magic  I  had  stood  on  some  summit  and 
waved  a  magician's  wand  and,  as  I  did  so,  said: 
"Beloved  West,  I  now  free  you  from  the  shackles 
of  unjust  rates.  Kansas,  I  free  you  from  mort- 
gages; the  lumber  you  use  shall  come  to  you  at 
fair  rates;  your  grain  shall  find  ready  market, 
and  the  rates  for  transportation  shall  be  just.  No 
longer  shall  you  burn  corn.  In  Kansas  City,  in 
the  place  of  depression  of  real  estate  values,  shall 
come  prosperity ;  great  grain  elevators  shall  spring 
up  on  every  hand.  It  shall  be  the  lumber  and  grain 
market  of  the  Southwest."  This  was  my  dream  and 
this  the  reality,  and  no  magician  with  his  wand 
could  ever  have  brought  it  quicker  than  the  finished 
Kansas  City  Southern  did.  Read  of  the  prices 
before  this  work  was  done ;  talk  to  the  people  who 
lived  there  before  1890.  And  then  go  and  see  that 
dream  of  mine,  now  a  reality.  See  what  can  be 
done  by  the  president  of  a  railroad  who  wishes  to 
serve  the  territory  which  gave  him  the  right  of 
eminent  domain,  the  right  to  build — a  president  who 
considered  his  territory,  and  not  Wall  Street. 

Now  what  a  storm  these  so-called  revolutionary 
rates  brought  down  on  me !  Railroad  meetings  were 
called  in  New  York,  Chicago  and  distant  places, 


52  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

to  curb  me.  When  the  lumber  rates  went  into 
effect,  all  Western  roads  boycotted  the  Southern  for 
ninety  days;  a  meeting  was  called  in  Chicago  to 
force  us  to  restore  the  twenty-six  cent  lumber  rate. 
The  boycott  was  at  all  division  points.  Our  cars 
would  not  be  received  by  any  railroad.  The  mil- 
lions I  had  secured  for  the  road  were  in  danger. 
Some  of  my  directors  wired  me  that  I  must  give 
in;  stockholders  thought  my  act  would  spell  ruin. 
But  I  made  up  my  mind  that  I  would  triumph  over 
all  the  combined  railroad  influence  and  wealth,  be- 
cause back  of  me  was  right  and  justice.  My  visions 
of  the  blessings  to  be  conferred  would  come  to 
naught  if  I  gave  in.  There  would  be  one  more 
railroad,  but  no  one  would  be  benefited. 

I  refused  to  go  to  the  meeting,  but  sent  our  traffic 
man  with  this  message:  "The  rate  on  lumber  from 
the  long-leaf  belt  to  St.  Louis  is  eleven  cents  per 
hundred;  from  St.  Louis  to  Chicago,  ten  cents  per 
hundred ;  the  combined  rate  is  twenty-one  cents  per 
hundred;  Kansas  City  is  a  much  shorter  haul  than 
to  Chicago,  and  the  people  our  road  serves  are 
entitled  to  this  rate,  and  it  will  stand  as  long  as  I 
am  president." 

When  my  message  was  read,  one  of  the 
great  railroad  men  of  the  West,  Mr.  Stickney, 
President  of  the  Chicago  Great  Western,  said: 
"Stilwell  is  right.  There  is  no  argument.  I  shall 
at  once  remove  the  boycott  as  soon  as  a  telegram 
can  be  written."  He  did,  and  I  owe  a  great 


53 

debt  of  gratitude  to  him  for  this  act,  as  do  all 
the  people  of  the  West.  Had  it  not  been  for  this 
act  of  his  I  cannot  tell  what  would  have  been  the 
result.  A  meeting  of  railroad  presidents  was  called 
at  Bar  Harbor,  Maine,  to  consider  the  cut  rates  I 
had  put  in  on  grain.  I  refused  to  attend.  Why  go 
to  distant  Bar  Harbor  to  talk  of  justice  to  Kansas 
and  the  West? 

I  saw  the  injustice;  I  knew  the  remedy  and  I 
intended  to  apply  it.  Wall  Street  and  the  markets 
were  not  what  I  had  constructed  that  steel  ribbon 
south  for ;  it  was  to  benefit  my  beloved  section  of  the 
United  States.  Better  go  down  to  defeat  fighting 
for  the  right  than  win  personal  ease  and  personal 
gain  by  surrendering  the  rights  of  others. 

What  capacity  for  work  Hope  gives  man !  When 
the  vision  before  him  is  justice,  he  is  able  to  tread 
the  thorny  path  of  life;  the  fires  of  adversity  he 
does  not  feel ;  his  eyes  are  on  the  high  goal  of  honest 
endeavor.  Sneers  and  personal  loss  are  nothing  to 
him.  He  is  fighting  for  a  principle;  he  is  endowed 
with  strength  that  comes  no  other  way.  I  know  all 
of  my  fight  for  freedom  of  action  will  bear  fruit, 
and  that  none  of  my  constructive  work  for  my 
country  will  in  the  long  run  fail.  With  your  face 
turned  toward  Good,  the  final  will  be  triumph,  no 
matter  if  the  road  be  long. 

Now  all  western  railroad  interests  were  united 
to  fight  me.  I  was  a  menace  to  the  stock  market. 
I  was  a  disturbing  factor;  at  least,  this  was  their 


54  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

viewpoint.  My  new  rates,  railroad  men  said,  would 
ruin  the  railroads  of  the  West,  and  I  am  sure  they 
honestly  believed  it — but  my  vision  was  different. 
I  saw  just  rates  would  bring  prosperity  to  the 
West;  it  would  increase  the  buying  power  of  all. 
The  loss  on  the  rates  made  on  grain  and  lumber 
would  be  made  up  by  greater  crops,  as  capital 
would  go  into  paying  business ;  greater  use  of  lum- 
ber would  come  with  lower  rates ;  the  farmers  of  the 
West  would  have  millions  for  merchandise  which 
they  could  not  now  buy,  and  the  rates  on  the  mer- 
chandise that  should  come  West  to  a  section  with 
ample  money  to  buy  would  make  up  for  loss 
through  the  new  rates  in  grain  and  lumber. 

All  of  these  visions  came  true.  Land  advanced 
in  value  by  leaps  and  bounds.  The  people  grew 
rich  and  were  enabled  to  hold  their  property  and 
buy  more,  and  no  harm  was  done  anyone.  The 
route  for  western  grain  to  go  south  was  established. 
Galveston,  Port  Arthur,  and  New  Orleans  throbbed 
with  life  as  the  products  of  the  soil  were  turned 
south;  the  Kansas  City  Southern  shipped  train- 
loads  of  packing  house  products  to  the  South  for 
export — never  before  done.  New  packing  houses 
were  built ;  the  existing  ones  were  then  enlarged  to 
fill  export  orders  for  by-products — a  condition 
never  before  known  in  Kansas  City.  The  people 
of  the  West  had  money,  mortgages  were  paid,  and 
all  the  great  good,  as  I  foresaw,  came  to  this  section 
and  is  there  today. 


BUILDING  MY  FIRST  ROAD  55 

Let  me  try  to  give  you  a  pen  picture  of  the  work 
I  was  daily  doing  as  this  great  road  was  being  built. 
The  road  is  progressing  to  the  Gulf,  as  the  mes- 
sage of  blessing  is  daily  written  on  the  ground  in 
characters  of  steel  and  ties  of  oak.  All  over  the 
West  and  Northwest  are  hundreds  of  agents  telling 
of  the  new  empire  open  for  settlement.  Towns 
grow  as  by  magic.  Mena,  Arkansas,  grew  to  two 
thousand  in  population  in  a  few  weeks.  When  the 
townsite  sale  started,  there  were  over  one  thousand 
people  camping  around  the  townsite.  Often  in  one 
week  five  thousand  dollars  would  be  paid  for  tickets 
by  home-seekers  going  to  a  townsite  or  land  sale. 
All  the  while  this  construction  work  was  going  on 
companies  were  formed  to  build  hotels  in  the  new 
towns,  to  develop  water  power,  gas  and  electric 
lights.  Men  were  induced  to  come  to  these  towns 
and  locate  in  all  kinds  of  business,  and  like  the 
building  of  Solomon's  Temple,  there  were  skilled 
men  in  all  departments.  Great  orchards  were 
planted;  thousands  of  acres  were  turned  from 
swamp  lands  to  rice  fields ;  and  when  the  road  was 
finished,  it  jumped  to  greater  earnings  the  first 
month  than  the  Western  Pacific  did  with  all  of  the 
seventy-eight  millions  of  dollars  expended,  and  all 
the  Gould  lines  back  of  it.  Think  of  such  develop- 
ment, which  enables  a  road  the  first  month  of  its 
history  to  earn  at  the  rate  of  over  five  thousand 
dollars  per  mile  per  year.  Seldom  before  has  there 
been  such  a  record  made. 

Station  after  station  handled  big  business  for 


56  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

some  company  I  had  financed.  The  road  had 
fought  an  unnecessary  fight  at  Port  Arthur,  yet 
amidst  all  this  fight,  I  had  found  time  to  develop 
a  territory  as  few  ever  have  before  or  since.  And 
when  the  road  was  finished,  all  these  mills,  orchards 
and  rice  fields,  in  connection  with  a  line  of  steamers 
to  Europe  and  Mexico,  made  a  wonderful  picture 
of  the  achievement  of  a  man  who  was  fighting  for 
his  people,  for  his  Nation.  I  had  only  made  forty 
thousand  dollars  profit  in  all  these  years  of  work 
in  this  great  enterprise.  I  had  no  time  to  think  of 
self.  I  was  fighting  a  battle  like  Grant  fought— 
like  all  men  on  the  battlefield  fight.  You  cannot 
think  of  reward ;  only  your  duty  can  hold  you  dur- 
ing such  a  bombardment  as  Kountz  and  others  gave 
me. 

But  all  the  time  I  felt  that  this  great  constructive 
work  would  be  rewarded  in  some  way.  I  looked  at 
the  work  of  my  hands  and  found  it  good.  I  saw 
just  railroad  rates  take  the  place  of  unfair  ones. 
I  saw  hundreds  of  new  homes  dot  the  plains  and 
hillsides.  I  heard  the  hum  of  scores  of  mills  at  work 
on  the  road ;  I  saw  the  grimy  miners  going  to  open 
up  the  new  mines  this  road  developed ;  the  husband- 
men at  work  on  the  thousands  of  acres  of  land  just 
opened;  the  hundreds  of  tie  cutters  at  work  in  the 
forests  cutting  ties  for  the  roads  of  the  West.  I 
saw  the  ships  at  Port  Arthur  loading  at  the  grain 
elevator  for  the  Continent ;  saw  the  stacks  of  lumber 
being  loaded  for  all  parts  of  the  world.  And  that 
was  the  picture,  painted  by  a  so-called  Dreamer ! 


STEAMERS  PREPARING  TO   LOAD   Wl 
SOUTH  AM  ERICA  AJ 


D1L  AND   OTHER  COMMODITIES   FOR 


1RT  ARTHUR,  TEXAS 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  PORT  ARTHUR  FIGHT 

While  the  Kansas  City  Southern  was  building, 
the  idea  of  making  Galveston  the  deep  water  ter- 
minal was  given  up.  I  had  read  in  some  old  book 
that  the  Indians  had  said  the  island  on  which  Gal- 
veston was  located  had  twice  been  covered  with 
water.  Knowing  full  well  the  history  of  the  de- 
struction of  Sabine  Pass  in  the  early  eighties,  and 
knowing  the  destructive  power  of  these  Gulf 
storms,  I  made  up  my  mind  to  build  a  storm-proof, 
land-locked  harbor.  I  felt  sure  that  sooner  or 
later  Galveston  would  again  be  visited  by  a  great 
storm,  and  I  did  not  wish  to  have  our  road  there 
when  it  arrived. 

Soon  after  we  had  bought  the  Texarkana  &  Fort 
Smith  Railroad,  which  afterward  was  made  part 
of  the  Southern  System,  I  made  up  my  mind  to 
locate  a  city  on  the  Gulf  where  no  storm  could 
reach.  I  went  to  Sabine  Pass  and  looked  it  over. 
There  I  was  given  all  the  details  of  the  different 
storms  that  had  three  times  destroyed  the  tracks 
of  the  Southern  Pacific  leading  to  this  place.  I 
heard  of  the  awful  devastation  of  the  storm  of  1883 
from  one  of  the  few  men  who  were  saved.  I  made 

57 


58  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

up  my  mind  that  it  was  foolish  to  consider  this 
point  as  a  terminal  of  our  road.  I  found  that  four- 
teen miles  back  on  the  north  shore  of  Sabine  Lake 
no  storm  had  ever  touched;  that  the  storm  waters 
spread  all  over  the  great  lake  and  lost  their  power 
before  the  north  shore  was  reached. 

There  I  found  a  cow  pasture  which  I  decided  to 
buy,  and  through  the  land  build  a  great  canal  and 
connect  with  the  waters  of  Taylor's  Bayou,  and 
have  it  flow  through  the  canal,  keeping  it  scoured 
out  by  its  current  of  about  three  miles  an  hour. 
My  plan  was  outlined  and  perfected  and  the  town 
site  of  four  thousand  acres  was  purchased  at  a  cost 
of  twelve  dollars  per  acre,  a  total  of  forty-eight 
thousand  dollars.  This  is  the  price  today  of  a  few 
hundred  feet  on  the  leading  business  street  of  Port 
Arthur.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  trip,  and  seeing 
this  need  of  a  terminal  city,  Port  Arthur  would 
still  be  a  cow  pasture  and  its  great  land  value  would 
not  have  been  created. 

I  supposed  when  I  had  located  this  place  that 
this  was  a  free  country.  I  supposed  that  when  a 
company  owned  a  railroad  and  terminal  property, 
it  would  be  free  to  construct  and  develop,  unob- 
structed by  outside  influences.  But  now  started 
one  of  the  most  bitter  fights  ever  known  to  the 
Southwest.  We  endeavored  to  buy  the  swamp  land 
connecting  this  four  thousand  acre  plot  with  deep 
water,  but  were  thwarted  in  every  way  by  injunc- 
tion suits.  We  then  went  to  the  Texas  legislature 
and  got  the  right  to  condemn  land  for  the  canal. 


THE  PORT  ARTHUR  FIGHT  59 

This  bill  was  fought  night  and  day  by  the  owners 
of  Sabine  Pass,  but  my  constructive  work  for  Texas 
during  the  past  five  years,  and  the  fact  that  the 
owners  of  Sabine  Pass  had  never  developed  the 
land  at  all,  were  considered,  and  we  won  the  right 
to  condemn  that  bit  of  swamp  between  the  site  of 
Port  Arthur  and  deep  water.  The  land  was  con- 
demned and  brought  a  nominal  price,  as  it  was 
worthless. 

I  thought  our  victory  was  now  complete.  Few 
men  who  have  not  come  in.  direct  contact  with 
wealth  understand  what  money  can  do.  The  fight 
went  to  the  courts  on  the  condemnation  and  was 
fought  for  months.  Then  when  the  Kountzes,  who 
were  back  of  the  fight,  were  beaten  in  the  courts, 
they  took  it  to  the  halls  of  Congress.  They  claimed 
that  the  finishing  of  the  canal  would  cause  silt  to 
come  down  and  destroy  the  work  of  the  Govern- 
ment on  the  jetties;  they  did  not  say  that  the  river 
which  flowed  into  the  canal  bore  no  silt  at  all.  They 
had  reports  from  men  like  General  Palmer  of  Colo- 
rado, who  made  a  report  that  the  canal  banks  would 
all  slide  in  within  one  year  and  fill  up  the  canal. 
This  report  was  published  in  the  Eastern  daily 
papers  and  sent  to  all  people  they  knew  were  inter- 
ested in  our  work,  and,  as  his  was  a  great  name, 
it  had  great  influence.  Now,  how  few  people  who 
read  such  reports  analyze  them  at  all.  Just  attach 
some  well-known  name,  and  a  false  statement  has 
power — for  a  while  at  least. 


60  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

Let  us  analyze  General  Palmer's  report:  Sup- 
pose the  bank  did  slide  in;  it  was  our  canal,  not 
Kountz's  or  Palmer's.  And  how  did  Palmer 
know?  And  what  was  it  to  him,  anyway?  He  was 
not  there.  And  why  slide  in?  It  was  constructed 
in  clay  soil  and  has  the  same  slope  as  the  Suez 
Canal,  and  that  is  built  through  sand.  This  report 
had  power,  but  I  overcame  it.  All  this  time  our 
canal  was  costing  more  than  it  ought  to,  because 
of  the  great  expense  forced  on  us  by  this  fight — a 
fight  for  no  reason  on  earth  but  to  ruin  me  for  pure 
revenge,  because  I  had  refused  to  be  a  tool  for  a 
rich  man. 

I  dislike  to  drag  in  names,  but  this  needless 
fight  has  forced  me  to.  It  was  always  my  desire 
that  I  might  be  spared  the  ordeal,  but  if  people 
will  resort  to  such  contemptible  work,  they  must 
understand  the  risk,  and  accept  what  comes. 
All  of  these  men  have  in  each  case  thought  I  was 
deeply  in  debt.  They  were  positive  that  as  great 
an  optimist  as  I  was  would  be  a  large  borrower, 
and  they  have,  in  the  desire  to  ruin  me,  always 
struck  or  attempted  to  strike  me  in  my  banks. 
They  found,  as  this  man  did,  that  I  had  always 
anticipated  these  very  attacks,  and  had  not  extended 
myself.  Then  when  my  personal  credit  could  not 
be  destroyed,  they  have  never  failed  to  attack  my 
companies. 

After  my  fight  and  victory  in  the  legislature  of 
Texas,  after  the  United  States  Court  had  given  a 


THE  PORT  ARTHUR  FIGHT  61 

verdict  in  our  favor,  I  received  word  that  Mr. 
Luther  Kountz  wished  me  to  call  on  him  on  a  cer- 
tain day  at  eleven  o'clock.  I  called,  and  I  will  give 
you  word  for  word  the  conversation ;  it  is  as  clear 
in  my  mind  as  yesterday. 

I  said:  "Mr.  Kountz,  I  cannot  understand  this 
awful  fight  you  are  putting  up.  Our  land  is  our 
own;  our  railroad  is  our  own;  this  is  a  free  coun- 
try. We  are  fourteen  miles  away  from  your  land. 
I  would  have  been  glad  to  buy  it,  but  as  it  has  all 
been  under  water  three  times  in  thirty  years,  I  do 
not  wish  it." 

"Mr.  Stilwell,"  he  replied,  "I  will  force  you  to 
buy  it." 

"Force?"  I  repeated.  "That's  a  strong  word. 
No  man  can  force  me,  Mr.  Kountz."  But  I  thought 
I  would  find  out  the  price  he  wanted  for  what  I 
understood  cost  him  fifty  cents  per  acre;  so  I 
waited. 

"I  want  one  million  dollars;  this  is  my  price. 
If  you  say  you  will  recommend  the  purchase,  I  will 
at  once  give  you  personal  credit  for  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  in  our  bank."  As  he  said  this,  he 
arose  to  go  out  into  the  banking  room  to  give  me 
the  credit. 

This  quick  attempt  to  buy  me  interested  me,  and 
I  said:  "Not  so  quick,  Mr.  Kountz.  If  we  buy  this 
land,  we  will  have  to  fill  it  up  at  least  eight  feet, 
which  was  the  height  of  the  last  tidal  wave.  This 
will  cost  one  million  more.  It  is  fourteen  miles  to 


62  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

our  line.  This  will  cost  three  hundred  thousand 
more  to  reach  your  property.  Why  don't  you  build 
up  from  your  property  and  connect  with  our  road 
and  build  as  big  a  city  as  you  wish?  You  have  the 
money.  We  will  give  you  connection  anywhere  you 
wish  and  do  all  we  can  to  help  you. 

"You  have  owned  the  property  for  years,"  I  con- 
tinued, "and  you  own  great  fields  of  timber.  Why 
have  you  not  long  ago  developed  the  timber  lands 
you  own  and  erected  a  great  mill  and  sawed  lumber 
for  export?  It  is  a  good  enterprise.  Undertake 
it  now  and  connect  with  us.  Then  you  have  your 
own  road.  You  can  build  your  mill  there  and  bring 
the  logs  to  the  mill,  and  also  have  the  connection 
with  our  road.  Any  freight  that  originates  on  our 
road  can  be  transferred  to  any  steamers  you  charter 
or  that  come  to  your  port.  You  have  the  money 
and  credit.  Go  in  and  develop  and  we  will  co-oper- 
ate with  you.  This  is  a  free  land ;  there  is  enough 
for  us  all — and  then  some." 

His  face  grew  dark.  He  said:  "No,  I  will  not 
build  a  road  in  Texas.  My  terms  are  one  million 
dollars.  I  will  at  once  give  you  credit  for  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  No  one  shall  know  it. 
If  you  do  not  accept,  I  will  ruin  you  and  your  road 
and  prevent  your  finishing  the  canal." 

"Mr.  Kountz,"  I  said,  "I  am  not  for  sale.  Do 
you  think  I  would  work  night  and  day  to  build  this 
great  road;  would  work  in  an  unselfish  attempt  to 
make  a  land-locked  harbor;  watch  every  dollar  that 


THE  PORT  ARTHUR  FIGHT  63 

goes  into  the  road,  and  then,  just  as  my  honest 
endeavors  are  about  to  be  crowned  with  success,  sell 
my  manhood  to  you  for  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  ? 
Do  you  think  I  am  going  to  put  my  hand  into  the 
treasury  of  our  company  and  give  you  one  million 
dollars  for  something  I  consider  worthless  ?  There 
could  be  only  two  reasons  for  my  doing  this:  one, 
that  I  am  for  sale  at  one  hundred  thousand  dollars, 
which  I  am  not ;  the  other,  that  I  fear  you,  which  I 
do  not." 

I  left  the  bank,  and  then  was  started  the  great 
fight  at  Washington,  a  record  of  which  has  been 
published  by  the  Government. 

Now  remember,  my  reader,  that  Mr.  Kountz 
sent  for  me ;  I  did  not  ask  for  the  interview.  And 
notice  from  here  on  that  in  no  case  have  I  sought 
any  of  these  people  who  have  year  by  year  followed 
me.  You  ask  why  they  followed  me?  I  will  tell 
you.  Each  enterprise  that  I  have  started  has  had 
such  great  merit  that  it  excited  avarice  in  some 
rich  man's  heart.  He  wanted  what  I  had  created, 
as  his  own.  He  thought  I  was  for  sale — that  I  had 
a  price.  When  he  found  I  was  not,  he  adopted 
the  well-known  method  of  ruin  through  his  bank 
connections. 

The  fight  at  Washington  was  fierce.  The  matter 
was  brought  to  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee, 
and  we  were  enjoined  from  cutting  the  forty  feet 
that  remained  to  connect  with  deep  water.  We 
were  to  be  given  a  hearing  before  the  Committee 


64  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

at  a  distant  day.  It  finally  arrived.  I  came  to 
Washington  with  representative  men  from  various 
Western  cities. 

Among  them  was  Mr.  Hook,  now  United  States 
Judge.  Mr.  Kountz  was  there  with  his  attorney. 
Mr.  Dingley  was  chairman.  I  could  see  it  was  a 
fixed-up  job.  I  arose,  told  of  the  fight  for  this 
great  land-locked  harbor;  told  of  the  storms  that 
had  resulted  in  great  loss  of  life  at  Sabine,  and  the 
destruction  of  the  Southern  Pacific  track  that  lay 
along  the  canal.  Mr.  Dingley  interrupted  me 
with:  "Mr.  Stilwell,  twenty  minutes  is  all  you 
have,  and  your  time  is  up."  I  sat  down.  Mr. 
Hook  and  others  then  told  of  the  great  benefit  to 
the  West  that  had  come  with  the  Southern,  and 
how  still  greater  benefits  would  come  in  the  future. 

Then  Mr.  Kountz's  attorney  made  a  long  speech, 
telling  the  Committee  that  God  made  the  harbors 
and  He  had  not  made  one  in  my  cow  pasture ;  that 
I  had  located  mine  to  give  it  my  name.  "This  great 
financier  of  the  West,"  he  continued,  "has  told  you 
in  eloquent  words  of  the  awful  storms  that  have  in 
times  past  wiped  out  the  Southern  Pacific  that 
runs  along  his  great  canal.  But,  gentlemen,  he  has 
not  told  you  what  would  happen  to  his  canal  if 
such  a  storm  came  again." 

I  arose  and  said:  "Mr.  Dingley,  I  was  just 
going  to  tell  you  of  the  fourth  storm  last  year, 
when  you  said  my  time  was  up.  The  same  kind  of 


THE  PORT  ARTHUR  FIGHT  65 

a  storm  visited  this  section  last  year  and  again 
removed  ten  miles  of  Southern  Pacific  track.'' 

"Mr.  Stilwell,"  asked  Mr.  Kountz's  attorney, 
"what  did  the  storm  do  to  your  canal?" 

"It  only  wet  the  water"  I  answered.  There  was 
great  laughter.  We  left  the  committee  room  and 
in  one  hour  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee,  with 
a  vote  of  one  in  our  favor,  gave  us  permission  to 
proceed.  I  was  waiting  around,  and  as  they  came 
out,  Congressman  McMullin,  I  think  it  was,  of 
Tennessee,  came  up  and  said:  "Stilwell,  they  had 
me  lined  up  against  you  before  your  talk,  but  that 
'wetting  the  water'  got  my  vote." 

That  evening  President  McKinley  sent  for  me. 
He  told  me  Mr.  Kountz  had  about  perfected  papers 
for  a  new  injunction,  and  asked,  "How  long  will 
it  take  you  to  make  that  connection?"  "It  will  be 
done  by  daylight,"  I  replied;  and  it  was,  and  when 
the  Government  officers  went  to  serve  the  papers, 
the  canal  was  connected.  It  is  a  great  waterway, 
as  you  can  see  by  the  map.  It  is  seven  miles  long, 
and  the  same  width  and  depth  as  the  Suez  Canal. 
The  grain  elevator  I  built,  started  in  one  week  to 
load  steamers  for  Europe.  During  the  two  years' 
fight  to  build  a  waterway  on  our  own  land,  every 
effort  had  been  made  to  prevent  us.  A  paper 
had  been  published  each  week  at  Sabine  Pass, 
making  fun  of  our  canal,  and  these  papers  were 
given  out  at  Port  Arthur  to  all  who  arrived  by 
train. 


66  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

Bankers  wrote  my  friends  in  Kansas  City,  advis- 
ing them  to  call  my  loans.  And  yet  all  I  was  doing 
was  developing  the  West,  opening  an  empire  to 
the  tidewater  at  the  South. 

Thinking  there  was  no  doubt  that  we  could  finish 
our  canal,  I  had  chartered  a  line  of  steamers  to 
run  to  Liverpool,  from  Port  Arthur,  and  also  a  line 
of  steamers  to  Mexico,  when  these  injunctions  held 
us  up  and  as  a  consequence  forced  us  to  expend 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  tem- 
porary piers  so  that  lighters  could  load  there  and 
reload  onto  the  steamers.  The  expense  of  this 
fight  made  a  deficit  of  five  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars, which  burdened  the  road.  For  two  years  I 
had  fought  the  power  of  money  in  an  unjust  fight 
—an  unheard-of  fight — a  fight  to  force  us  to  buy 
land  fourteen  miles  away,  that  we  did  not  want, 
and  to  add  fourteen  miles  to  our  mileage  merely 
to  increase  the  riches  of  a  rich  man.  It  had  taken 
much  time,  and  attempts  had  everywhere  been  made 
to  prevent  me  from  getting  money. 

Then  notice  the  sequel.  A  few  years  later  the 
same  Government  that  Mr.  Kountz  had  used  as 
his  tool  took  over  this  canal,  agreed  to  maintain  it 
free  for  ninety-nine  years,  and  extended  it,  at 
the  Government's  expense,  about  ten  miles  to  the 
Natchez  River.  This  wild  dream  of  Stilwell's,  that 
he  fought  the  Money  Trust  and  the  Government 
for,  was  not  such  a  wild  dream,  after  all.  Port 
Arthur  has  grown  rapidly;  its  increase  of  tonnage 


THE  PORT  ARTHUR  FIGHT  67 

for  the  year  ending  1910  was  thirty-five  per  cent. 
Some  months  its  foreign  trade  is  greater  than  that 
of  Galveston,  but  the  finishing  of  the  Panama  Canal 
will  make  it  one  of  the  greatest  ports  of  the  United 
States. 

What  a  different  life  mine  would  have  been  had 
it  not  been  for  this  unequal  fight !  No  receivership 
would  have  been  needed,  and  I,  no  doubt,  would 
today  be  the  president  of  the  road,  and  Mr.  E.  L. 
Martin  of  Kansas  City  and  Mr.  deGeoijen  of 
Amsterdam,  as  vice-presidents,  in  the  positions 
they  deserve  for  their  great  and  loyal  work. 

The  calamities  predicted  by  the  experts  have 
not  yet  come.  In  spite  of  General  Palmer's  predic- 
tion that  the  banks  of  the  canal  would  cave  in  within 
a  year,  the  canal  stands  today  as  it  stood  when  I 
finished  it  fourteen  years  ago. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  RECEIVERSHIP  or  THE  KANSAS  CITY 
SOUTHERN 

The  Port  Arthur  fight  crippled  the  road  and 
gave  us  a  floating  debt  of  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  but  in  Holland  we  had  a  friend  who  rep- 
resented us,  one  of  the  most  unselfish  men  I  ever 
met.  His  whole  aim  in  life  was  to  watch  the 
stockholders'  interests.  He  bought  nearly  all  of 
this  floating  debt. 

We  needed  thousands  of  new  cars,  but  had  not 
the  credit  to  buy  them.  The  grain  was  moving 
south  in  train-load  lots.  I  had  closed  a  contract 
with  a  large  Chicago  house  for  two  ship  loads  of 
sisal  per  month,  and  this  we  used  to  load  the  grain 
cars  north.  The  business  of  the  mills  and  the  grain 
business  was  so  large  that  we  were  threatened  with 
suits  because  we  could  not  get  cars  to  move  it. 

Never  had  a  new  road  jumped  into  greater 
business.  The  need  of  new  cars  was  very  urgent, 
and  I  talked  it  over  with  George  M.  Pullman,  one 
of  God's  noblemen  and  one  of  the  best  friends  of 
my  life.  We  telegraphed  each  other  every  other 
day.  He  had  been  a  friend  of  my  grandfather, 
who  started  him  in  business.  He  said,  "Well, 

68 


KANSAS  CITY  SOUTHERN  69 

Arthur,  you  must  have  more  cars.  Next  week  Mr. 
Calif,  my  auditor,  and  I  will  go  over  the  road  with 
you."  They  did,  and  Mr.  Pullman  at  once  saw  its 
great  business  advantages.  He  would  not  talk  of 
any  plan,  but  requested  me  to  have  all  the  directors 
of  our  road  at  the  Lawyers'  Club,  New  York  City, 
two  weeks  later.  We  met,  as  requested,  and  after 
lunch  Mr.  Pullman  spoke  very  feelingly  of  my 
grandfather's  friendship  for  him.  He  recounted 
my  grandfather's  work  in  New  York  state,  told 
about  his  starting  Mr.  Pullman  in  business,  and 
said:  "My  friendship  for  your  president,  my  de- 
sire to  help  the  grandson  of  my  good  friend,  leads 
me  to  do  something  that  I  know  would  not  be  called 
a  good  business  arrangement.  I  have  just  been 
over  your  road  with  my  auditor,  Mr.  Calif.  I  see 
its  great  business  advantages.  I  recognize  its  need 
of  additional  equipment.  I  understand  the  burden 
the  Port  Arthur  fight  has  been,  and  out  of  gratitude 
for  the  start  Hamlin  Stilwell  gave  me,  and  out  of 
friendship  for  his  grandson,  I  will  furnish  the  com- 
pany two  million  dollars  for  equipment — notes  with 
no  cash  payment,  and  only  interest  the  first  five 
years.  The  Pullman  Company  can  build  part  of 
these,  the  rest  Mr.  Stilwell  can  order  elsewhere." 
Well,  such  help  I  had  never  hoped  for.  It  was 
the  deliverance  of  my  great  road.  Tears  of  grati- 
tude came  to  my  eyes  and  all  the  directors,  I  think, 
felt  as  I  did.  What  a  relief  from  a  great  burden. 


70  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

The  fight  of  Kountz  was  forgotten  in  the  presence 
of  such  great  kindness. 

I  at  once  gave  the  orders  for  the  cars  and  loco- 
motives needed,  and  a  few  weeks  later  Mr.  Pull- 
man telegraphed  me  to  come  to  Chicago  and  he 
would  assume  the  contract.  I  rolled  up  the  con- 
tracts and  started  for  Chicago.  All  that  night  I 
could  scarcely  sleep,  thinking  of  the  kindness  of 
this  great  man.  I  was  up  early  with  my  precious 
roll  of  contracts.  I  stood  at  the  door  of  the  car  so 
I  could  be  the  first  one  out.  And  then  I  heard  the 
newsboys  calling  out,  "Extra !  Extra !  Full  account 
of  the  death  of  George  M.  Pullman !"  Words  here 
are  useless.  I  cannot  picture  my  feelings.  I  loved 
him  as  if  he  had  been  my  father.  My  contracts 
slipped  to  the  ground.  I  reeled,  but  in  some  way 
managed  to  reach  Mr.  Weeks'  office,  and  that  is  all 
I  remember  of  that  awful  day.  My  great  benefac- 
tor was  gone;  America  had  lost  one  of  its  greatest 
men.  In  my  hands  were  contracts  for  millions, 
and  I  had  not  the  scratch  of  a  pen. 

In  a  few  days  I  reached  Philadelphia  and  called 
around  me  our  directors  and  leading  stockholders. 
We  agreed  that  the  only  way  to  get  the  two  million 
dollars  needed  was  to  get  the  bondholders  to  turn 
back  twenty-five  per  cent  of  their  bonds  and  take 
fifty  per  cent  of  preferred  stock.  This  would  give 
us  the  needed  money  from  the  bond  sales,  and  put 
the  company  in  good  financial  shape.  All  at  the 
meeting  agreed  to  this,  and  Mr.  Welch,  Mr.  Stotes- 


KANSAS  CITY  SOUTHERN  71 

bury  and  one  or  two  other  stockholders  with  Mr. 
deGeoijen  and  myself  were  appointed  to  act  as  a 
reorganization  committee  with  no  fees.  As  Mr. 
deGeoijen  had  placed  all  the  bonds  that  were  held 
in  Europe,  we  were  positive  this  could  soon  be  done 
without  a  receiver.  All  the  stockholders  present 
were  more  than  pleased  with  the  plan  for  the  refin- 
ancing of  the  road,  and  we  felt  sure  that  when  Mr. 
deGeoijen  arrived,  the  new  securities  could  be 
issued  within  a  few  weeks,  and  everything  brought 
to  a  successful  conclusion. 

When  Mr.  deGeoijen  arrived,  and  before  he 
reached  Philadelphia,  the  committee  had  been 
formed,  with  Mr.  John  Lober  Welch  as  chairman. 
A  more  capable  man  could  not  have  been  found  in 
the  United  States.  He  had  been  interested  in  the 
road  from  the  start,  and  had  large  holdings. 

Mr.  deGeoijen,  as  soon  as  he  arrived,  met  men 
sent  to  influence  him,  who  advised  him  it  was  better 
to  have  a  New  York  man  as  chairman  and  advised 
him  to  have  Ernest  Thalmann.  I  objected  to  hav- 
ing anyone  not  a  large  stockholder  a  member  of  the 
reorganization  board,  but  much  to  my  regret,  Mr. 
•Welch  resigned  and  Mr.  Thalmann  was  elected 
chairman.  The  Equitable  Trust  Company  of  New 
York  was  appointed  depository.  When  I  started 
to  get  the  bonds,  it  was  agreed  that  no  receivership 
was  necessary  as  the  new  bonds  could  be  issued  soon, 
the  debts  paid  and  a  good  cash  surplus  left  in  the 
company's  treasury.  Mr.  deGeoijen  offered  to  take 


72  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

enough  bonds,  when  issued,  to  pay  the  debts  of  the 
road.  Day  by  day  I  went  out  securing  deposits  of 
bonds  and  shares,  but  I  found  that  Mr.  Thalmann's 
name  was  a  detriment. 

I  was  called  West  and  while  there,  awoke  one 
morning  to  find  that  Mr.  Thalmann  had  forced  a 
receivership  at  midnight  on  a  small  printing  bill. 
As  I  stated  before,  all  debts  of  any  amount  were 
owned  by  Mr.  deGeoijen,  and  I  was  amazed  at  this 
breach  of  faith.  I  took  the  next  train  for  New 
York,  and  in  Chicago  found  in  a  broker's  office  a 
telegram  from  Thalmann  advising  selling  our 
stock  short.  The  stock  had  already  gone  down  a 
number  of  points.  I  pocketed  the  wire  from  the 
broker  and  left  for  New  York. 

I  at  once  went  to  see  Mr.  Thalmann,  and  said  to 
him:  "How  dare  you  ask  for  a  receiver  when  a 
receiver  was  not  needed,  when  we  had  all  agreed 
there  should  be  none,  as  Mr.  deGeoijen  was  carry- 
ing all  the  debts?" 

Mr.  Thalmann  closed  the  door  and  said,  "Stilwell, 
I  did  it  to  force  the  stock  down  because  I  want  a 
large  interest  in  the  road.  Mr.  deGeoijen  tells  me 
that  you  have  made  practically  nothing  out  of  your 
work.  Now  here  is  your  chance.  Take  this  report 
and  show  it  to  the  stockholders.  They  will  at  once 
sell  their  bonds  and  shares,  and  I  will  carry  you  on 
the  books  for  a  million  dollars  of  stocks  or  bonds. 
This  is  a  great  chance  for  you,  so  don't  be  a  fool." 

I  read  the  report,  all  a  falsehood — a  base  mis- 


KANSAS  CITY  SOUTHERN  73 

representation  of  the  road.  I  looked  at  him  and 
said,  "Mr.  Thalmann,  how  dare  you  as  chairman  of 
the  Protective  Committee,  with  a  promised  fee  of 
fifty  thousand  dollars  for  serving  the  stockholders, 
how  dare  you  come  to  me,  the  president  of  the  road, 
with  such  a  suggestion?  This  report  is  got  up  to 
follow  your  receivership  and  rob  the  stockholders. 
I  refuse  to  be  your  tool  in  this  dirty  work,  and 
what  is  more,  you  never  shall  be  Chairman,  and 
never  shall  collect  that  fifty  thousand  dollar  fee." 

And  he  never  did.  When  I  told  Mr.  deGeoijen 
of  this,  he  refused  to  deposit  his  eight  million  dol- 
lars of  bonds,  and  I  stopped  all  deposits,  but 
there  were  three  million  dollars  of  bonds  that  I 
myself  had  got  in  before  this  episode.  I  was  com- 
pelled to  leave  and  go  West  on  other  important 
business  connected  with  the  receivership  and  dur- 
ing my  absence  a  second  committee  was  formed. 
After  six  weeks  of  failure  to  get  bonds  deposited 
without  my  aid,  Mr.  Shipley  called  me  up  by  long- 
distance telephone,  and  said:  "Stilwell,  we  want 
your  help  with  the  Reorganization  Committee,  and 
wish  you  would  come  on  at  once." 

In  a  few  days  I  called  upon  Mr.  Shipley,  taking 
with  me  Mr.  William  Waterall,  whose  counsel  and 
advice  I  always  sought  and  relied  upon.  Mr.  Ship- 
ley said:  "Mr.  Stilwell,  you  are  the  only  man  who 
can  do  this  work,  and  we  want  your  help.  Help  us 
and  when  the  road  is  reorganized,  you  shall  be 
reinstated  president,  as  you  deserve  to  be."  I 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  EASTER 


I  doubt  if  any  incident  in  my  life  had  more  effect  on 
me  than  this  print  in  the  Kansas  City  Journal  of  Easter 
morning,  1899.  As  I  opened  the  paper  I  was  astonished 
to  find  there  had  been  appointed,  without  my  knowledge, 
a  receiver  for  the  Kansas  City,  Pittsburg  &  Gulf  Rail- 
road (now  the  Kansas  City  Southern).  I  was  amazed 
and  indignant,  but  looking  over  at  the  right  hand  corner 
of  the  page,  filled  only  with  the  receivership  article, 
was  this  print,  and  as  I  saw  this  calm  face,  pointing 
up  to  the  realms  above  matter  and  its  discords,  all 
indignation  and  resentment  left  me.  The  transformation 
was  really  startling. 

Often  in  later  years,  amidst  the  stress-  of  this  earthly 
existence,  I  have  seen  this  calm  face  still  pointing  up- 
ward, still  peaceful,  and  it  has  time  and  time  again 
nerved  me  on  to  greater  triumphs  over  self  and  mate- 
rial conditions.  I  understand  now  as  never  before  how 
the  crusaders  were  enabled  to  endure  hardships  that 
were  not  possible  except  by  the  inspiration  of  the  symbol 
of  the  cross  blazoned  upon  their  banners. 


74 


V5 


KANSAS  CITY  SOUTHERN  77 

agreed  and  started  in  by  depositing  in  a  few  days 
one  jnillion  dollars  of  bonds. 

The  Guardian  Trust  Company,  of  which  I  was 
president,  was  owed  four  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  thousand  dollars  by  the  Belt  Line.  It  was 
promised  that  this  would  be  paid,  and  when  the 
plan  was  issued,  this  promise  was  embodied  in  the 
plan.  This  debt  of  four  hundred  and  seventy-five 
thousand  dollars  was  represented  by  notes  of  the 
Belt  Line.  As  any  number  of  the  Guardian  stock- 
holders were  owners  of  the  Belt  bonds  and  South- 
ern bonds,  all  who  understood  that  the  Belt  Line 
notes  were  being  taken  up  deposited  their  bonds, 
and  no  plan  could  have  succeeded  that  did  not  con- 
template a  settlement  of  this  debt. 

Mr.  deGeoijen,  being  the  largest  holder  of  Belt 
Line  bonds  and  shares,  and  also  a  large  holder 
of  the  Trust  Company  stock,  was  satisfied  by  the 
justice  of  the  plan  and  deposited  his  bonds  and 
shares  and  promised  his  aid  to  this  new  committee. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  GATES  OFFER 

The  year  the  Kansas  City  Southern  was  in  the 
receiver's  hands,  and  while  the  reorganization  was 
under  way,  I  was  busy  preparing  for  great  devel- 
opment of  the  territory  served  by  the  road.  We 
had  been  promised  the  payment  of  the  claim  of  four 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars.  I  had 
been  assured  of  the  position  of  president  of  the 
reorganized  road,  and  when  re-elected  I  wished  a 
strong  trust  company  back  of  me  in  its  develop- 
ment. I  expected  to  inaugurate  plans  at  Port 
Arthur  that  would  have  made  it  three  times  the 
size  it  is  now. 

.So,  to  carry  out  these  plans  and  provide  for  the 
future,  and  to  extend  the  business,  it  was  arranged 
to  increase  the  capital  from  one  million  to  two 
million,  five  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  to  open 
an  office  in  Chicago.  The  increase  was  voted  upon, 
and  a  large  part  taken  by  the  stockholders.  Later 
I  went  to  Chicago  to  open  the  office  there,  and  one 
day  met  my  old  Stn  Louis  acquaintance,  John 
Gates.  He  asked  me  what  I  was  doing.  I  ex- 
plained my  plans  to  him,  and  he  said:  "I  will 
take  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  the  trust  com- 

78 


THE  GATES  OFFER  79 

pany."  This  he  did,  and  interested  other  friends 
in  the  company.  He  asked  me  if  I  did  not  wish 
hinTto  join  me  in  the  reorganization  of  the  South- 
ern. I  told  him  I  would  be  pleased  to  have  him  do 
so,  and  also  to  co-operate  with  me  in  the  joining 
of  the  four  hundred  miles  of  road  north  of  Kansas 
City  that  I  was  consolidating  and  connecting  by 
one  hundred  and  fifteen  miles  of  new  construction. 
These  roads  connected  up  Omaha,  Quincy  and  St. 
Louis  with  Kansas  City. 

Mr.  Gates  bought  a  large  interest  in  these  con- 
solidated roads,  and  also  a  considerable  holding  of 
bonds  and  shares  of  the  Southern,  depositing  them 
with  the  Reorganization  Committee.  Shortly  after 
this,  Mr.  Gates  wished  me  to  have  the  Philadel- 
phia Reorganization  Committee  increased,  and  him- 
self and  one  or  two  friends  elected  on  the  Commit- 
tee. We  all  went  to  Philadelphia  to  meet  Messrs. 
Welch,  Waterall  and  others.  They  at  first  ob- 
jected, but  as  I  had  been  such  a  help  to  the  Com- 
mittee they  acquiesced;  the  Board  was  increased 
and  Mr.  Gates  and  his  friends  were  elected  as 
members.  I  little  thought  this  move  would  help 
in  losing  me  the  road.  To  please  Mr.  Gates  I 
appointed  a  friend  of  his,  Mr.  Brimson,  who  was 
manager  of  the  Northern  roads.  He  was  a  very 
capable  man — in  fact,  one  of  the  best  men  ever 
connected  with  me,  and,  best  of  all,  he  was  as  honor- 
able a  man  as  I  ever  met.  The  association  was 
most  agreeable.  Mr.  Brimson  was  building  up  the 


80  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

business  of  their  roads.  They  had  a  very  fair  future, 
and  were  valuable  as  connections  for  the  Southern 
road. 

Mr.  Gates  one  day  suggested  that  I  take  my  car 
and  he  and  some  friends  would  go  to  Port  Arthur 
with  me.  This  we  did.  They  were  more  than 
pleased  at  the  great  business  the  road  was  doing, 
and  their  amazement  at  the  magnitude  and  per- 
fection of  the  land-locked  harbor  they  could  hardly 
express  in  words. 

Messrs.  Gates  and  Elwood  bought  lots  on  the 
lake  front  and  afterwards  built  very  expensive 
homes  there. 

That  night,  at  the  hotel,  Mr.  Gates  made  a 
speech  recounting  my  wonderful  work,  stating  that 
he  was  glad  to  be  associated  with  me,  and  that  the 
people  of  Port  Arthur  could  be  assured  I  would 
be  president  of  the  road  when  reorganized.  On 
the  trip  back  I  became  better  acquainted  with  Mr. 
Gates.  He  was  on  this  trip  taking  steps  to  depress 
the  stock  of  the  Steel  and  Wire  Company  by  stop- 
ping the  mills  when  the  company  had  great  orders, 
and  thereby  make  an  additional  fortune  again  at 
the  stockholders'  expense.  I  only  got  fragmentary 
remarks  as  Messrs.  Gates  and  Elwood  talked  this 
over,  but  my  impression  was  that  Mr.  Elwood 
was  doing  all  in  his  power  to  persuade  Mr.  Gates 
not  to  send  out  this  order.  This  destructive  work 
of  stockholders'  equities  and  the  newspaper  com- 
ments afterwards  filled  me  with  fear  regarding 


THE  GATES  OFFER  81 

Mr.  Gates'  business  principles,  and  I  did  not  from 
that  time  enjoy  his  companionship  as  I  had  in  the 
past.  My  fears  were  more  than  justified.  One 
day  when  I  was  in  Chicago  at  three  o'clock  I  re- 
ceived a  telephone  call  from  Mr.  Gates'  secretary. 
He  said  Mr.  Gates  wished  me  to  see  him  at  five 
o'clock  at  his  office.  Somehow  I  had  the  presenti- 
ment of  a  coming  battle. 

I  called.  I  did  not  see  him  at  once,  but  a  little 
after  five  o'clock  I  was  asked  into  his  room.  There 
was  only  one  electric  light  burning,  and  that  was 
turned  full  on  my  face,  while  Mr.  Gates  sat  in  the 
shadow. 

He  said:  "Stilwell,  do  you  want  to  make  some 
big  money?  I  want  to  make  you  rich." 

"Gates,"  I  replied,  "any  honest  way  that  I  can 
make  money,  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  accept." 

He  said:  "Stilwell,  your  principles  make  me 
sick.  I  am  after  the  stuff,  and  everybody  knows 
it.  Now,  I  am  going  tonight  by  the  Alton  special 
train  to  St.  Louis.  At  two  o'clock  a  receiver  will 
be  appointed  for  all  four  of  our  Northern  roads. 
I  want  you  to  go  with  me.  You  shall  be  the 
receiver.  Then  you  go  to  these  bondholders  of  the 
Omaha  and  St.  Louis  road  and  the  Quincy  road, 
and  tell  them  there  is  no  future  for  the  road.  You 
know  them  all,  as  you  got  them  to  accept  your 
plan  of  reorganization.  They  will  do  what  you 
say  and  will  accept  any  old  price.  I  will  supply 
the  money,  and  we  will  divide  the  profits." 


82  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

"Mr.  Gates,"  I  exclaimed,  "how  dare  you  sug- 
gest such  a  thing!  We  have  over  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  in  the  treasury  now,  and  this, 
Mr.  Brimson  says,  is  all  we  need  to  bring  the  roads 
up  to  fair  condition.  Why  a  receiver  at  two  o'clock 
in  the  morning  if  it  is  an  honest  need?" 

"Stilwell,"  he  said,  "you  are  a  fool.  Who  said  it 
was  an  honest  need?  A  receivership  is  to  scare 
people  out — that  is  what  it  is  for.  You  are  a  fool 
if  you  do  not  accept.  I  can  keep  you  from  being 
re-elected  president  of  the  Southern.  Do  you  wish 
to  give  up  the  presidency  of  this  road,  to  also  give 
up  a  big  fee  as  receiver  of  the  Northern  roads,  as 
well  as  the  profit  on  the  deal?  Now,  will  you  go 
or  not  ?  The  time  is  up.  Don't  be  a  fool." 

"Mr.  Gates,"  I  said,  "you  say  the  Judge  will 
appoint  a  receiver  at  two  o'clock.  You  must  have 
it  fixed." 

He  flew  into  a  rage,  pounded  the  desk,  and  said : 
"It  is  all  fixed,  and  I  did  not  let  you  know  until 
too  late  to  kick." 

I  said:  "Gates,  I  can  not  and  will  not  do  it.  I 
started  life  at  twelve  hundred  a  year,  and  would 
rather  end  it  that  way  than  make  money  as  you 
suggest." 

At  two  o'clock  the  next  morning  the  receivership 
was  granted.  Gates  joined  forces  with  Thalmann 
and  Harriman  to  keep  me  out  of  the  Southern 
road  as  president.  I  did  all  in  my  power  to  keep 


THE  GATES  OFFER  83 

these  bond  and  share  holders  from  loss,  and  did 
prevent  his  making  as  much  as  he  expected. 

Kountz,  Thalmann,  Gates  and  Harriman  I  now 
had  on  the  warpath  after  me,  but  I  did  not  regret 
any  of  my  refusals  to  don  their  several  yokes,  and 
I  would  today  rather  be  the  business  exile  I  am 
than  to  own  Archbold's  millions,  and  expect  here 
or  hereafter  to  reap  his  harvest. 

And  I  believe  there  are  many  young  men,  sons 
of  rich  men,  who  would  prefer  to  have  inherited 
less  wealth,  with  an  untarnished  name.  To  illus- 
trate this  point,  I  quote  the  following  from  this 
morning's  Minneapolis  Times-Herald: 

"MINNEAPOLIS  SCORNS  GATES'  $1,000,000 

"Minneapolis,  Minn.,  Aug.  29. — Charles  G. 
Gates  left  Minneapolis  a  very  disappointed 
man.  'I  am  sore,'  said  Mr.  Gates,  'and  just 
now  I  shouldn't  wonder  if  I  decided  to  build 
in  Seattle  instead  of  Minneapolis.' 

"Mr.  Gates  bought  large  holdings  on  Lake 
of  the  Isles  boulevard,  and  planned  to  build 
his  Minneapolis  residence  there.  After  Mr. 
Cogan  had  learned  who  was  the  real  purchaser 
of  the  tract  he  withdrew  from  the  contract. 
Gates  had  planned  to  spend  $1,000,000." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

MY  RESIGNATION  FROM  THE  GUARDIAN  TRUST  Co. 

Seeming  clouds  were  now  shaping  fast  in  my 
business  sky.  Gates  was  furious  at  my  telling 
people  of  his  offer  and  my  comments  on  the  injus- 
tice of  a  court's  promising  a  receiver  before  the 
case  was  laid  before  it.  It  appalled  me  that  the 
bond  and  share  holders  in  the  road  had  no  hearing 
and  that  only  one  side  of  the  case  was  presented. 
Think  of  the  great  loss  from  a  partnership  of  evil 
men,  and  the  courts  of  the  land  used  at  two  A.  M. 
to  wreck  widows,  orphans,  and  the  helpless,  merely 
to  swell  the  coffers  of  the  rich. 

My  talk  was  more  than  Gates  could  stand,  and 
at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Guardian  Trust  Com- 
pany, Mr.  Gates'  representative  on  the  board  told 
the  directors  that  he  believed  the  Trust  Company 
had  been  used  as  a  private  snap  by  me,  and  that  if 
I  was  not  its  president,  auditors  would  be  able  to 
prove  his  statement.  As  the  board  was  a  little 
inclined  toward  Gates,  I,  the  second  day  after  the 
meeting,  resigned  as  president  of  the  company. 
The  papers  now  stated  that  Stilwell  would  not  be 
re-elected  as  president  of  the  Southern;  that  it  was 
insisted  a  railroad  man  must  occupy  the  place. 

84 


MY  RESIGNATION  85 

Oh,  if  the  world  only  had  the  real  reason !  I  had 
refused  to  be  a  crook.  I  had  refused  to  surrender 
the  road  to  Harriman  (the  details  of  which  I  will 
not  reveal  in  this  book  as  it  involves  names  and 
trickery  which  under  no  circumstances;  would  I 
reveal  now.) 

I  had  refused  to  give  Kountz  a  million  for  land 
which  no  one  before  or  since  has  wanted. 

I  had  refused  to  help  Thalmann  collect  fifty 
thousand  dollars  as  Chairman  of  a  so-called  Stock- 
holders' Protective  Committee,  and  at  the  same 
time  allow  him  to  sandbag  the  people  he  was  paid 
to  represent. 

I  had  refused  to  help  Gates  in  his  personal  at- 
tempts to  sandbag  others. 

Now  I  was  out  of  my  railroads.  All  of  my  work 
in  making  the  reorganization  plan  operative  was  to 
come  to  naught ;  all  the  money  spent  by  me,  person- 
ally, in  the  reorganization  was  lost. 

I  was  out  of  the  trust  company  whose  president 
for  thirteen  years  I  had  been,  but  I  was  in  the 
prime  of  life  and  had  been  able  to  resist  as  many 
temptations  as  ever  came  one  man's  way,  and  I  had 
left,  as  I  have  now,  the  greatest  asset  on  earth, 
faith  in  myself. 


CHAPTER  IX 

WHAT  AN  EXPERT  CAN  SAY 

I  shall  try  to  let  my  readers  see  how  far  so-called 
railroad  experts  can  go  in  depreciating  a  property 
when  they  are  ordered  to  do  so  by  the  Money  Trust, 
who  will,  if  they  disobey,  force  them  out  of  their 
positions.  The  hold  of  the  Money  Trust  is  espe- 
cially strong  because  when  one  great  interest  dis- 
charges a  man,  none  of  the  others  would  dare  to 
take  him  up,  so  he  must  either  do  as  requested  or 
find  some  other  occupation,  or  leave  the  United 
States. 

Now  I  will  give  you  some  extracts  from  H.  van 
den  Berg's  report  on  the  present  Kansas  City 
Southern,  then  called  the  Kansas  City,  Pittsburg 
&  Gulf  Railroad.  When  you  think  of  the  great 
success  the  Kansas  City  Southern  road  has  been, 
and  is  today;  when  you  think  that  it  ranks 
with  the  great  railroads  of  the  land  in  earnings 
per  mile;  when  you  see  the  success  Port  Arthur 
has  made,  and  when  you  read  the  extracts  from  the 
report,  you  will  see  to  what  depths  these  experts 
will  go  to  serve  their  masters.  And  when  you  in 
the  future  may  read  reports  on  the  possibilities 
of  the  Orient  Railroad,  then  remember  the  mis- 

86 


WHAT  AN  EXPERT  CAN  SAY  87 

leading  report  of  this  man,  who  was  Traffic  Man- 
ager of  the  great  Louisville  &  Nashville  Railroad. 
You  may  be  saved  from  being  fooled,  as  some  of 
my  stockholders  were  by  this  report. 

But  now  as  we  see  how  false  this  man's  report 
was,  how  he  speaks  of  the  road  as  a  "swindle  of 
gigantic  proportions,"  think  of  me  struggling  to 
build  this  great  road,  to  develop  my  beloved  Kan- 
sas City,  and  finding  this  report  in  English,  Dutch 
and  German  wherever  I  went  to  sell  our  bonds 
and  shares.  Why,  it  halted  our  work  six  months, 
and  yet  it  was  only  a  pack  of  lies.  But  a  pack 
of  lies  with  a  great  name  attached  to  it  can  do  great 
harm.  A  lie  can  go  a  league  while  Truth  is  put- 
ting on  its  boots. 

To  my  friends  who  understand  the  success  of 
the  road  and  its  territory,  these  extracts  from  van 
den  Berg's  report  will  prove  of  interest: 

"I  have  completed  my  investigation,  and  I 
now  reiterate  my  previous  statement,  viz.,  these 
enterprises  are  'swindles  of  gigantic  proportions.' 
Whether  premeditated  or  unintentional,  due  to 
overconfidence  honestly  based  on  the  part  of  the 
men  fathering  these  schemes,  is  not  material  at 
this  time."  (Pages  4  and  5.) 
With  this  introduction,  Mr.  van  den  Berg  goes 
on  to  discuss  the  various  points: 

"Outside  of  grain  elevators,  to  which  I  refer 
later,  the  road  does  not  reach  packing  houses, 
warehouses,  or  other  industries  of  importance 


88  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

that  are  not  reached  by  the  railroads  themselves, 
or  by  the  Kansas  City  Belt  Railway,  except  that 
it  reaches  exclusively  the  plant  of  the  'Indian 
Rice  Milling  Company,'  which  is  bankrupt  and 
not   in   operation.     On   the   other   hand,   these 
various  railroads  and  the  Kansas  City  Belt  Rail- 
way reach  packing  houses  and  many  other  indus- 
tries that  are  not  reached  by  this  road.     Stress 
is  laid  upon  track  connection  with  the  packing 
houses.     That  line  reaches  the  packing  houses 
of  Fowler  and  Armour,  but  the  tracks  do  not  run 
up  to  the  leading  platforms,  and  the  road  does 
not   handle   the    shipments   of   either.     It   also 
reaches  the  packing  houses  of  Schwarzchild  & 
Sulzberger  and  does  handle  their  business  at  pres- 
ent at  half  the  rate  charged  by  the  Kansas  City 
Belt  Railway,  i.  e.,  $1.00  per  car;  $2.00  per  car 
is  the  customary  charge."    (Pages  15  and  16.) 
With  what  wonderful  detail  Mr.  Van  den  Berg 
goes  into  the  great  difficulty  with  which  the  road 
could  extract  one  car  of  meat  or  packing  house 
product  from  these  packing  houses.    And  then  the 
ones  we  did  reach  were  burned  down,  or  we  did 
not  reach  the  proper  platform.     The  truth  is  the 
first  month  we  handled  for  Armour  alone  as  much 
as  one  trainload  of  by-products  for  Amsterdam, 
and  we  had  in  each  ship  that  sailed  from  Port 
Arthur  at  least  a  trainload  of  freight  from  some 
packing  house. 

"The  K,  C.,  P.  &  G.  R.  R.  proper  does  not 


WHAT  AN  EXPERT  CAN  SAY  89 

reach  any  important  grain  producing  section,  nor 
has  it,  to  any  material  extent,  and  for  practical 
purposes,  access  to  the  states  of  Kansas  and 
Nebraska."  (Page  31.) 

As  I  read  this  comment  of  Mr.  van  den  Berg's, 
I  think  of  the  first  months  after  the  building  of 
the  road,  when  I  was  threatened  day  after  day  with 
law  suits  because  I  could  not  furnish  cars.  Within 
ninety  days  after  the  completion  of  the  road,  often 
five  trainloads  of  grain  would  go  south  in  one  day. 
The  seats  on  the  Kansas  City  Stock  Exchange 
went  from  fifty  dollars  to  thirty-six  hundred.  Con- 
cerning Port  Arthur  he  says : 

"I  enclose  a  United  States  Government  chart 
of  the  Coast  of  Texas  from  Sabine  Pass  west- 
ward, corrected  up  to  October  14,  1896.  Port 
Arthur  is  not  located  on  the  Gulf,  but  about 
twelve  miles,  by  water,  north  of  Sabine  City, 
on  the  west  shore  of  Sabine  Lake.  But  for  the 
bar  (according  to  the  chart,  ten  feet  of  water), 
Sabine  Pass  may  properly  be  termed  a  deep- 
water  harbor.  The  recent  dredging  of  Sabine 
Pass,  the  dredge  material  being  used  in  the  con- 
struction of  jetties,  it  is  believed  will  not  only 
keep  the  channel  open,  but  materially  increase 
the  depth  of  water  on  the  bar.  This  I  think  is 
true,  but  whether  or  not,  from  the  northern  end 
of  the  dredged  channel  of  Sabine  Pass  harbor 
the  distance  to  Port  Arthur  is  about  seven  miles. 
For  this  distance  the  depth  of  water  varies  from 


90  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

one  to  five  feet,  and  this  will  not  be  increased 
by  the  channel  that  has  been  dredged  in  Sabine 
Pass  harbor.     To  procure  a  depth  of  water  at 
Port  Arthur  it  will  be  necessary  to  dredge  a 
channel  from  that  point  to  the  end  of  the  Sabine 
Pass  channel.    A  conservative  estimate  made  by 
a  competent  engineer  places  the  cost  at  not  less 
than  $1,400,000 ;  and  this  engineer  also  expresses 
the  opinion  that  the  improvement  may  not  then 
be  permanent;  in  other  words,  that  the  channel 
may  fill  up,  in  which  event  frequent  dredging 
would  have  to  be  done.    The  bottom  of  Sabine 
Lake  is  a  few  feet  of  soft  material  on  top,  under 
which  the  substance  is  pipe  clay."    (Page  21.) 
Regarding  Port  Arthur,  you  will  see  by  my 
chapter  on  Port  Arthur  what  an  enormous  success 
this  harbor  has  been.     Land-locked  and  storm- 
proof, when  the  great  storm  reached  Galveston,  the 
ships  that  could  reach  this  canal  rode  in  safety. 
The  Government  has  been  so  impressed  with  the 
importance  of  this  work  that  it  has  not  only  agreed 
to   maintain    it   free   ninety-nine   years,    but    has 
extended  it  along  the  coast  to  connect  with  the 
Natchez  River. 

"I  shall  now  proceed  to  discuss  the  points 
made  by  Mr.  Stilwell  in  his  pamphlet,  and  for 
convenience  I  have  numbered  the  pages  of  this 
pamphlet. 

"(1)  It  is  claimed  'The  Kansas  City,  Pitts- 
burg  &  Gulf  Road  is  the  shortest  line  to  deep 


WHAT  AN  EXPERT  CAN  SAY  91 

water,  hence  has  every  advantage  possessed  by 
any  deep  water  route,  and  has  the  greater  advan- 
tage of  being  the  shortest  line  to  all  the  deep 
water  ports,  viz.,  New  Orleans,  Sabine  Pass, 
and  Galveston.  The  Kansas  City,  Pittsburg  & 
Gulf,  besides  being  the  shortest  line  to  the  ports 
mentioned,  reaches  two  more  ports  than  any 
road  in  the  West  by  means  of  its  connections  at 
Shreveport  and  Beaumont.' 

"The  statements  are  untrue ;  and  even  if  they 
were  true,  the  reasoning  in  arriving  at  the  advan- 
tages claimed  for  the  Kansas  City,  Pittsburg  & 
Gulf  Road  is  faulty.  In  dealing  with  this  fea- 
ture, Mr.  Stilwell  can  have  in  view  no  traffic 
other  than  export,  for  deep  water  is  not  essential 
to  control  traffic  in  and  from  the  ports  proper. 

'The  advertised  distance  of  the  Kansas  City, 
Pittsburg  &  Gulf  R.  R.  from  Kansas  City  to 
Port  Arthur,  its  advertised  terminal,  is  760  miles. 
To  Sabine  Pass  the  distance  would  be  about 
twelve  or  fifteen  miles  greater;  but  as  I  have 
already  indicated,  neither  Port  Arthur  nor  Sa- 
bine Pass  is  at  present  a  deep  water  port.  As- 
suming Sabine  Pass  with  be  a  deep  water  port 
and  the  K.  C.,  P.  &  G.  R.  R.  will  make  that 
point,  instead  of  Port  Arthur,  its  terminus,  suc- 
cess in  its  attempts  to  handle  export  traffic 
through  that  port  is  far  remote.  The  water  front- 
age at  Sabine  Pass  is  owned  by  bankers  in  this 
country,  naturally  with  the  intent  to,  if  possible, 


92  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

realize  an  income.  To  accomplish  this,  wharfage 
and  other  charges  must  be  assessed,  and  this  of 
itself  is  an  embargo,  whether  it  is  assessed  against 
ships  or  cargoes  or  absorbed  by  the  rail  line  to 
the  port.  In  the  latter  case,  owing  to  competitive 
rates  in  effect,  competitive  not  only  because  of 
competition  as  between  two  or  more  lines  to 
the  same  port,  but  also  competitive  because  of 
competition  between  all  lines  leading  to  all  the 
ports  on  the  American  continent,  except  ports 
on  the  Pacific  coast,  the  traffic  would  be  wholly 
unremunerative  to  the  inland  carrier.  It  may  be 
suggested  that  the  K.  C.,  P.  &  G.  R.  R.  may 
relieve  itself  of  this  embargo  by  acquiring  Sabine 
Pass  water  frontage  by  purchase.  As  will  ap- 
pear later,  the  investment  of  this  additional  capi- 
tal would  be  throwing  good  money  after  bad, 
as  would  be  the  expenditure  of  money  in  an 
attempt  to  secure  deep  water  at  Port  Arthur. 
It  being  impracticable  to  export  through  Port 
Arthur  or  Sabine  Pass.  .  .  ."  (Pages  21,  22 
and  23.) 

From  what  Mr.  van  den  Berg  says,  no  road  on 

earth  would  be  justified  in  having  a  deep  water 

outlet,  since  some  one  must  be  paid  for  the  property. 

"(2)    It  is  claimed  'The  road  reaches  more 

natural  freight-producing  regions  than  any  other 

road  of  equal  length  in  the  West,  including  coal, 

hardwood,  long  and  short  leaf  pine,  lead  and 

zinc.' 


WHAT  AN  EXPERT  CAN  SAY  93 

"There  is  nothing  to  warrant  the  assertion, 
and  it  is  misleading.  If  it  were  true,  it  is  of  no 
moment  unless  all  of  the  products  can  be  mar- 
keted. The  Kansas  City,  Pittsburg  &  Gulf 
reaches  a  few  of  the  less  important  markets 
reached  by  lines  traversing  corresponding  terri- 
tory, viz.,  the  Missouri,  Kansas  &  Texas  R.  R., 
the  Missouri  Pacific  R.  R.,  the  Atchison,  the 
Kansas  City,  Fort  Scott  &  Memphis,  etc.,  on 
which  roads  the  commodities  (coal  and  lumber) 
named  by  Mr.  Stilwell  are  produced,  and  I  do 
know  they  have  not  been  successful  in  finding  a 
market  for  all  that  is  produced  on  their  lines, 
nothwithstanding  their  local  territory  (and  to 
which  the  K.  C.,  P.  &  G.  is  not  likely  to  be  given 
access),  is  much  greater  than  that  of  the  K.  C., 
P.  &G.  R.  R."  (Page  26.) 

"The  K.  C.,  P.  &  G.  R.  R.  has  no  local  con- 
suming points  of  importance — about  the  most 
important  is  Siloam  Springs,  Ark.,  2,198  inhab- 
itants.   As  to  the  number  of  inhabitants  at  the 
various  points  mentioned,  the  figures  were  taken 
from  the  United  States  Tenth  Census  Report, 
the  latest  published."     (Page  28.) 
It  is  rather  unjust  that  Mr.  van  den  Berg  should 
give  the  census  report  of  Siloam  Springs,  one  of 
the  smallest  cities  on  the  road,  and  not  mention 
Pittsburg,  Kansas ;  Joplin,  Missouri ;  Fort  Smith, 
Arkansas;     Texarkana,    Texas,    and    Shreveport, 
Louisiana,  all  of  them  from  five  to  ten  times  larger 


94  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

than  Siloam  Springs. 

"Long  Leaf  Pine.    The  K.  C.,  P.  &  G.  road 
will  reach  a  large  and  valuable  long  leaf  pine 
territory.     The  difficulty  is  to  find  a  market. 
Their  market  will  be  almost  wholly  confined  to 
points  on  their  own  line,  as  all  of  their  northern 
and  southern  connections  reach,  with  their  own 
rails,  either  yellow  pine  or  white  pine  territories, 
and  naturally  will  do  everything  they  legally 
can  to  protect  the  mills  on  their  own  lines  and 
shut  out  lumber  from  foreign  lines.     If  at  all 
possible,  the  K.  C.,  P.  &  G.  will  necessarily  en- 
counter great  difficulty  in  marketing  their  own 
lumber  beyond  their  own  lines."    (Page  30.) 
How  amusing  and  misleading  this  statement  is 
regarding  the  long  leaf  pine  business,  and  Mr.  van 
den  Berg  must  have  known  it  was  so  when  he 
made  it.    The  product  of  the  forests  on  the  Kansas 
City  Southern  is  about  fifty  per  cent  of  its  busi- 
ness, and  the  business  of  the  long  leaf  pine  belt  is 
daily  supplied  by  numerous  mills,  and  the  output 
of  these  mills  is  shipped  as  far  as  Portland,  Maine, 
and  also  exported  to  all  over  Europe.    This  is  what 
I  claimed  would  be  done,  and  this  is  what  happened. 
"The  character  of  the  territory  reached  and 
markets  served  by  the  Iron  Mountain,  Chicago 
&  Alton  and  Illinois  Central  is  so  well  known 
that  a  comparison  with  that  of  the  K.  C.,  P.  &  G. 
is  obviously  absurd,  and  any  comments  from 
me  are  unnecessary."    (Page  32.) 


WHAT  AN  EXPERT  CAN  SAY  95 

What  I  said — that  the  Kansas  City  Southern 
would  some  day  earn  as  much  as  the  Missouri 
Pacific,  Chicago  &  Alton  and  the  Illinois  Central — 
has  always  been  borne  out  by  facts,  except  that 
the  Kansas  City  Southern  earns  about  five  thou- 
sand dollars  more  a  mile  per  year  than  the  Missouri 
Pacific,  and  its  earnings  are  up  in  the  Illinois  and 
Alton  class  per  mile.  And  any  one  who  knows 
the  great  success  of  this  territory  and  then  reads 
Mr.  van  den  Berg's  statement  here  will  wonder 
how  any  man  who  regarded  his  name  could  sink  to 
such  depths. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  TESTIMONIAL  DINNER 

After  my  resignation  from  the  Guardian  Trust 
Company  in  January,  I  made  up  my  mind  to  take 
a  few  months'  rest,  and  with  Mrs.  Stilwell  went  to 
Old  Point  Comfort.  I  afterwards  returned  to 
Kansas  Citj^  to  be  with  Dr.  Woods,  Mr.  Rule  and 
other  friends  and  talk  over  the  future.  The  day 
before  I  arrived  I  had  designed  the  Orient  Road, 
but  told  no  one  of  it  except  Mrs.  Stilwell  and  Dr. 
Woods.  Among  my  friends  in  Kansas  City  was 
Mr.  A.  F.  Nathan,  manager  of  one  of  the  large 
packing  houses.  He  went  to  see  a  number  of  my 
friends,  and  the  outcome  was  a  banquet  at  the 
Midland  Hotel,  February  eleventh,  nineteen  hun- 
dred, where  I  was  presented  with  a  silver  loving  cup. 

It  was  after  twelve  when  my  time  came  to  speak. 
There  had  been  wonderful  speeches:  Father  Dai- 
ton,  the  leading  Jewish  rabbi,  the  leading  Presby- 
terian minister,  leading  business  men  from  all 
trades,  had  all  told  of  my  work  for  Kansas  City 
and  the  upbuilding  of  the  South;  then  came  the 
loving  cup.  What  a  happy  night  it  was  for  me! 
How  it  strengthened  me  in  the  determination  that 

96 


THE  TESTIMONIAL  DINNER  97 

I  would  give  to  Kansas  City  one  more  great  road. 
And  had  it  not  been  for  these  financial  cannibals 
arid  these  respectable  scoundrels,  Kansas  City 
would  long  ago  have  had  that  road. 

I  arose,  thanked  the  dear  friends  for  their  kind 
words,  and  told  them  there  was  no  complaint  from 
me.  I  had  built  a  great  terminal  road  and  a  great 
road  south;  I  had  lost  it,  but  it  was  there  for 
mankind;  as  mankind  and  the  world  had  won, 
and  as  I  was  part  of  the  world,  I  therefore  had 
also  won.  "But,"  I  said,  "my  friends,  I  brought 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  one  hundred  and  fourteen  miles 
nearer  Kansas  City.  Now  I  am  going  to  build  a 
new  road  and  bring  the  Pacific  four  hundred  miles 
nearer."  They  looked  at  me  in  wonder.  They 
thought  they  had  come  to  a  funeral,  and  they  found 
a  wedding.  But  on  the  way  home  that  night  a 
number  of  my  hosts,  who,  I  am  afraid,  thought 
my  great  losses  had  affected  my  mind,  asked  how 
I  could  bring  the  Pacific  ocean  four  hundred  miles 
nearer  Kansas  City.  A  glance  at  the  map  would 
have  explained  it. 

The  next  day  the  Kansas  City  papers  were  full; 
the  new  road  and  the  idea  was  the  property  of  the 
world. 

I  wish  here  to  thank  Mr.  Nathan  and  all  the  dear 
friends  at  that  dinner.  It  did  a  world  of  good  for 
a  man  who  had  fought  a  fight  for  honor  in  business 
— a  fight  for  the  understanding  that  a  trust  was 
not  a  private  snap. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  BIRTH  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD 

The  next  morning  after  the  testimonial  dinner 
I  called  on  my  friends  in  the  Bank  of  Commerce— 
Dr.  Woods  and  the  late  cashier,  Church  White,  who 
had  invested  with  me  in  the  Kansas  City  Southern 
and  had  netted  between  two  hundred  and  three  hun- 
dred per  cent  profit.  Church  White  told  me  that 
had  it  not  been  for  his  profits  on  the  investment  in 
the  Kansas  City  Southern  he  never  would  have 
had  any  money  to  have  retired  on.  The  meeting  in 
the  bank  that  morning  with  Dr.  Woods,  Mr.  Rule 
and  the  other  directors  was  in  reality  the  birth  of 
the  Kansas  City,  Mexico  &  Orient  Road. 

I  got  a  map  of  the  United  States  and  Mexico, 
and  Dr.  Woods  and  the  other  directors  went  over 
the  idea  of  the  railroad  with  great  interest.  I  told 
them  that  President  Diaz  was  very  friendly  and 
that  he  had  mentioned  to  D.  J.  Haff  that  he  appre- 
ciated the  splendid  service  I  had  given  to  the  East 
Coast  of  Mexico  by  the  steamship  line  of  which  I 
was  president  (before  the  receivership  of  the  South- 
ern road),  that  had  operated  between  Port  Arthur 
and  Progreso,  stopping  at  Tampico  and  Vera  Cruz. 
He  told  Mr.  Haff  that  any  time  I  wished  his  help 
in  Mexico  he  would  do  all  in  his  power  to  aid  me. 

98 


BIRTH  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD  99 

I  explained  to  Dr.  Woods  and  the  directors  that 
it  was  useless  for  me  to  think  or  brood  over  my 
loss  of  the  Guardian  Trust  Company  or  the  Kansas 
City  Southern;  that  I  was  yet  a  young  man,  and 
that  I  felt  sure  that  this  new  railroad  would  add 
such  an  empire  to  the  trade  of  Kansas  City  that 
I  would  in  time  be  more  than  satisfied  that  the 
other  railroad  had  been  taken  from  me.  From 
that  day  I  never  talked  over  the  loss  of  the  South- 
ern Railroad  to  any  one,  nor  allowed  any  one 
to  attempt  to  interest  me  in  conversing  on  this 
subject. 

Dr.  Woods  said:  "Well,  Stilwell,  we  have  made 
good  money  on  the  old  railroad,  and  there  is  no 
reason  in  the  world  why  we  should  not  all  co-oper- 
ate with  you  in  the  new  road,  and  I  certainly  want 
to  do  everything  I  can  to  bring  to  Kansas  City 
such  an  immense  aid  in  the  upbuilding  of  the  city 
as  this  new  railroad  you  have  designed  will  be  for 
our  town.  You  say  that  you  expect  to  leave  to- 
morrow with  Mrs.  Stilwell  for  Mexico.  Go  down 
there,  and  when  you  come  back  we  will  give 
you  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  subscriptions 
among  your  friends  here  in  the  bank,  of  which  I 
myself  will  take  a  good  share." 

The  next  day  after  this  interview,  which  meant  so 
much  to  me,  I  left  for  Chihuahua  and  the  City  of 
Mexico.  Before  I  left,  I  heard  that  the  auditors 
were  busy  in  the  Guardian  Trust  Company  hunt- 
ing for  my  crooked  work,  so  that  they  could  expose 


100  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

me.  But  this  did  not  worry  me.  As  I  had  never 
done  any  crooked  work,  my  sleep  was  undisturbed 
by  the  fact  that  they  were  looking  for  it. 

After  a  two  and  a  half  days'  ride,  Mrs.  Stilwell 
and  I  arrived  at  Chihuahua  and  the  Palace  Hotel. 
I  will  not  attempt  to  describe  the  room  which  was 
assigned  us  in  this  hotel.  Words  fail  me.  All  I 
can  say  is  that  Mrs.  Stilwell  was  as  brave  as  she 
always  is,  and  accepted  as  she  always  does,  with 
a  smile,  any  seeming  misfortune.  That  perpetual 
sunshine  of  hers  has  helped  me  many  days  when 
life  would  not  have  been  worth  the  living  with- 
out it. 

The  next  day  I  called  on  one  of  the  great  men 
of  Mexico,,  Enrique  C.  Creel,  president  of  the 
Bank  of  Minero,  afterwards  Governor  of  Chihua- 
hua, later  Ambassador  to  the  United  States,  and 
afterwards  Secretary  of  State.  Mr.  Creel  is  a  fine 
executive  and  every  inch  a  gentleman.  We  have 
been  great  friends  from  that  day  to  this,  and  I 
hope  we  will  be  until  the  end  of  time.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  me  to  express  my  appreciation  of  Mr. 
Creel.  I  hope  some  day  to  see  him  President  of 
Mexico,  and  as  President  of  Mexico  I  can  assure 
the  people  of  that  Republic  they  would  have  one 
of  the  best  governments  possible  and  prosperity 
would  follow  every  day  of  Mr.  Creel's  administra- 
tion; the  greatest  confidence  would  be  inspired  in 
that  Republic,  and  Mexico  would  have  a  wonderful 
era  of  prosperity. 


BIRTH  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD  101 

I  had  a  long  talk  with  Mr.  Creel  and  explained 
to  him  the  plan  of  the  great  railroad  that  I  hoped 
to  build.  He  agreed  with  me  that  he  knew  of  no 
railroad  enterprise  in  Mexico  that  could  be  a  greater 
success  than  this ;  that  it  had  been  the  dream  of  his 
life,  and  that  his  connection  with  the  Chihuahua 
&  Pacific  had  only  been  in  the  hope  that  this  rail- 
road would  eventually  reach  the  Pacific.  He  told 
me  of  the  wealth  of  the  Sierra  Madres  in  timber, 
of  the  millions  of  tons  of  ore  on  the  dump  heaps 
left  there  by  the  ancients  (one  dump  heap  I  had 
assayed  ran  four  hundred  and  ten  thousand  tons 
of  ore  of  eleven  dollars  value,  and  this  value  above 
ground) .  Governor  Creel  used  this  illustration  in 
our  interview.  He  said:  "If  all  of  Mexico  was  a 
desert,  it  would  pay  to  build  the  railroad  for  the 
Pacific  business.  If  there  was  a  wall  at  the  Pacific 
and  no  business  could  ever  leave  that  port,  it  would 
pay  to  build  the  railroad  for  the  great  local  busi- 
ness." And  I  am  positive,  after  years  of  study  of 
the  territory,  that  he  was  right. 

Mr.  Creel,  the  second  day  that  I  was  in  Chihua- 
hua, agreed  to  become  one  of  the  vice-presidents 
of  the  road,  and  he  promised  to  come  to  the  City 
of  Mexico  in  a  few  days  and  help  me  with  President 
Diaz  in  any  way  that  he  could. 

We  left  for  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  I  found  to 
my  great  surprise  that  President  Diaz  knew  I  was 
coming,  and  had  one  of  his  family  to  meet  me  at 
the  hotel  to  take  me  to  the  palace  for  an  interview. 


102  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

I  shall  never  forget  that  wonderful  interview. 
What  a  man!  He  was  the  most  wonderful  man  I 
ever  met  in  my  life,  and  words  cannot  describe  my 
years  of  business  relations  with  him.  His  great 
friendship  is  one  of  the  things  that  I  love  to  dwell 
upon.  How  he  looked  me  over !  I  thought  I  could 
feel  his  eyes  reaching  into  my  brain  and  looking 
over  its  cells  to  see  just  what  kind  of  a  brain  it 
was.  He  had  such  a  piercing  look  that  you  won- 
dered if  he  could  see  your  back  hair.  I  must  have 
passed  muster  at  the  first  interview,  for  he  after- 
wards said  he  was  my  friend  before  I  had  spoken  a 
word.  And  what  a  friend  he  was ! 

Wall  Street  bombarded  him.  He  told  me  after 
the  concession  was  granted  that  he  had  thirty  let- 
ters in  thirty  days  telling  him  I  could  never  build 
the  road,  and  telling  him  that  I  was  not  a  man 
to  trust.  Think  of  such  a  system!  What  had  I 
ever  done  to  justify  such  treatment,  except  develop 
my  beloved  city  and  the  Golden  West?  What  had 
I  ever  done  but  bring  in  panic  years  the  gold  of 
Europe  to  our  land?  I  had  built  great  railroads, 
formed  great  companies,  given  employment  to 
thousands  during  panic  years,  added  millions  to 
the  value  of  Kansas,  Missouri,  Arkansas,  Texas 
and  Louisiana  land  and  property,  had  built  a  great 
harbor,  financed  the  operations  of  two  fleets  of 
steamers,  and  increased  our  export  and  import  busi- 
ness. Yet  the  President  of  Mexico  was  daily  bom- 
barded in  an  effort  to  undermine  his  confidence  in 


BIRTH  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD  103 

me,  a  man  who  had  only  lived  a  constructive  life,  a 
man  who  in  other  nations  would  have  been  honored 
by  titles  and  decorations.  But  in  a  nation  where  in 
times  of  panic  they  destroyed  a  number  of  solvent 
banks,  as  Samuel  Untermeyer  says,  what  else  could 
be  expected? 

President  Diaz  went  over  my  maps  and  plans 
with  great  interest.  He  told  me  that  the  build- 
ing of  this  railroad  and  the  opening  up  of  the 
harbor  of  Topolobampo  had  been  the  great  ambi- 
tion of  his  life.  He  told  me  that  twenty  years 
before,  President  Grant  had  organized  a  company 
with  this  same  object  in  view,  and  was  president  of 
it  for  two  years,  but  that  Mexico  was  too  poor 
to  grant  a  subsidy;  that  after  President  Grant 
resigned,  ex- Secretary  Windom  had  then  taken  the 
presidency  of  the  enterprise,  and  had  for  seven 
years  attempted  to  get  financial  aid  and  subsidy  in 
the  building  of  the  line.  He  then  told  me  that 
later  Mr.  Huntington  for  several  years  had  at- 
tempted to  find  a  line  over  the  mountains.  He  said : 
"It  has  the  greatest  value  as  a  transcontinental  rail- 
road. Humboldt  has  visited  this  section  where  you 
intend  to  put  this  railroad,  Senor  Stilwell,  and  he 
pronounced  it  the  treasure-house  of  the  world."  I 
was  thrilled  by  the  story  of  other  men  who  had 
seen  this  line  as  I  had.  He  then  asked  me  what 
I  desired  from  the  Mexican  Government.  I  told 
him  that  I  wanted  national  and  federal  aid  that 
would  equal  three  millions  of  dollars  or  five  thou- 


104  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

sand  dollars  a  mile.  He  said  that  he  would  request 
the  State  of  Chihuahua  to  give  us  six  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars,  and  that  a  concession  would  be  sent 
me  the  next  day  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  in  that  con- 
cession the  Mexican  Government  would  give  us 
enough  federal  aid  to  equal  about  what  I  desired. 
As  he  promised,  the  next  day  at  eleven  o'clock  the 
concession  arrived. 

During  the  interview,  President  Diaz  told  me 
that  three  or  four  years  before,  the  railroad  laws 
of  Mexico  had  been  amended,  and  that  it  was  men- 
tioned that  no  more  subsidies  could  be  granted 
without  the  aid  of  Congress,  except  for  a  railroad 
from  Chihuahua  to  the  Pacific,  which  was  of  such 
great  importance  that  the  President  might  grant 
it  without  the  sanction  of  Congress.  So  bear  this 
in  mind:  this  project  of  mine  had  been  considered 
of  such  great  value  to  the  Republic  of  Mexico  that 
it  had  been  specified  in  the  railroad  laws.  They 
must  have  seen  me  coming  from  afar  when  they 
passed  that  law. 

I  asked  President  Diaz  how  it  was  that  he  had 
known  that  I  was  coming  to  Mexico.  "Why,"  he 
said,  "from  the  telegrams  from  the  governors." 

"What  governors?"  I  asked.  "I  do  not  under- 
stand what  you  mean." 

He  was  surprised  that  I  did  not  know  about  it. 
He  then  brought  a  bunch  of  telegrams  from  the 
governors  of  the  following  states:  Texas,  Mis- 
souri, Kansas,  Nebraska,  Louisiana,  and  Iowa, 


BIRTH  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD  105 

all  telling  of  the  wonderful  work  that  I  had  done 
in ,  the  upbuilding  of  the  West ;  also  one  from 
Assistant  Secretary  of  State  Ryan,  who  was  in 
Topeka  at  that  time.  I  had  never  before  read  such 
wonderfully  complimentary  telegrams.  They  were 
grand.  President  Diaz  said:  "Senor  Stilwell,  no 
man  has  ever  come  to  Mexico  with  such  an  endorse- 
ment as  you  have  in  these  telegrams.  I  will  always 
do  all  in  my  power  to  aid  you."  And  he  always 
did.  Now  will  the  reader  please  contrast  these 
messages  of  praise,  from  men  who  governed  the 
territory  which  I  had  served,  with  the  letters  from 
the  great  financiers  of  New  York  which  came 
to  the  President  a  few  days  later,  warning  him 
against  me? 

I  was  never  able  to  find  out  who  started  these 
telegrams,  but  whoever  did  start  them  has  my 
heartfelt  thanks,  and  I  have  always  believed,  from 
my  understanding  of  the  great  heart  of  W.  A. 
Rule,  who  was  always  thinking  of  some  way  to 
help  a  friend,  that  he  was  the  one  who  started  this 
bombardment  of  respect. 

The  next  day,  as  I  stated  before,  the  concession 
was  in  my  hands,  and  I  made  the  deposit  with  the 
government.  The  concession  I  had  started  for  was 
mine. 

Shortly  after  this  I  left  the  City  of  Mexico  and 
returned  to  Kansas  City  to  start  building  the  rail- 
road. I  cannot  describe  the  satisfaction  with  which 
I  laid  all  of  my  documents  before  Dr.  Woods  and 


106  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

Mr.  Rule  and  the  directors  of  the  Bank  of  Com- 
merce. The  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  was 
subscribed  at  once  to  help  start  this  work,  and  my 
subscription  was  on  the  same  basis  as  that  of  any 
one  else,  I  receiving  no  compensation  whatever  at 
that  time  for  the  ownership  of  the  concession.  En- 
gineers were  started  out  over  the  railroad,  and  the 
Kansas  City,  Mexico  &  Orient  was  really  born. 

Shortly  after  my  arrival  in  Kansas  City,  a  meet- 
ing was  called  of  the  directors  of  the  Guardian 
Trust  Company,  to  elect  a  president.  As  I  was  a 
director,  I  went  to  the  meeting.  Twenty-one  of 
the  directors  out  of  twenty-four  were  present,  as  I 
now  remember.  Among  them  was  my  good  friend, 
Mr.  William  Waterall,  of  whom  I  have  spoken 
before.  Mr.  William  S.  Taylor,  our  secretary  from 
Philadelphia,  was  there,  one  of  my  very  loyal 
friends,  and  one  who  had  in  every  way  possible 
helped  me  get  the  securities  of  the  Kansas  City 
Southern  together,  and  without  whose  help  I  prob- 
ably never  could  have  succeeded.  He  had  been 
promised  the  position  of  treasurer  in  the  Southern 
Railroad,  when  it  was  organized,  but  the  promise 
was  broken,  as  their  promises  to  me  had  been. 

After  the  reading  of  the  last  minutes  of  the 
Trust  Company,  Mr.  Waterall  said:  "I  have  come 
a  long  way,  and  so  has  Mr.  Barnes,  and  other 
directors,  to  hear  this  awful  expose  of  Mr.  Stil- 
well's  management.  I  believe  we  are  all  more 
anxious  for  that  than  anything,  and  as  far  as  I 


BIRTH  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD  107 

am  concerned,  as  I  say,  that  is  what  I  came  here 
for."  The  auditor's  report  was  read.  All  books 
and  documents  had  been  found  correct  from  the 
time  the  Company  had  started,  but  the  Auditor 
reported  that  I  had  paid  out  eighteen  hundred  dol- 
lars a  few  weeks  before  I  had  resigned,  without  the 
Executive  Committee's  O  K,  which  was  not  accord- 
ing to  the  company's  by-laws. 

I  never  shall  forget  the  look  on  the  faces  of  the 
directors  when  this  report  was  read.  I  was  sit- 
ting in  the  back  part  of  the  room  and  did  not  care 
to  take  any  active  part  in  the  proceedings,  although 
I  was  very  anxious  to  hear  all  about  the  crooked 
work  I  had  done. 

Mr.  Waterall  said:  "Do  I  understand,  Mr.  Sec- 
retary, that  that  is  all?" 

The  secretary,  who  had  read  the  report,  said: 
"That  is  all,  Mr.  Waterall." 

Mr.  Waterall  then  jumped  to  his  feet  and  said: 
"Of  all  the  farces,  this  is  the  greatest.  I  move  that 
we  all  re-elect  Mr.  Stilwell  by  a  rising  vote  at 
once."  This  was  done,  and  Mr.  Waterall  escorted 
me  back  to  the  chair  of  my  great  trust  company. 
My  salary  was  fixed  at  twenty  thousand  dollars  a 
year,  where  it  was  before.  I  now  was  president  of 
the  Guardian  Trust  Company.  I  had  been  rein- 
stated and  vindicated;  my  new  railroad  was  fairly 
launched,  and  my  old  trust  company  could  now 
have  the  privilege  of  financing  it.  It  seemed  to  me 


108  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

as  though  the  world  was  coming  back  again,  after 
having  been  lost  to  me  a  few  weeks  before. 

The  trust  company,  as  soon  as  I  was  re-elected, 
took  on  its  old-time  life,  business  commenced  pour- 
ing in  from  all  directions,  and  we  were  back  again 
on  a  good  dividend-earning  basis  in  a  few  weeks. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   FIRST    IMPORTANT    STEP   TO    BLOCK   THE 
ORIENT  ROAD 

November  30,  1900,  nine  months  and  a  half 
after  the  Orient  Road  was  started,  the  St.  Louis 
judge  who  had  at  two  A.  M.  granted  the  receivership 
for  the  northern  roads  appointed  Judge  Black,  of 
Kansas  City,  receiver  for  the  Guardian  Trust  Com- 
pany. For  weeks  we  had  been  fighting  this  case, 
and  also  interesting  people  in  the  Orient  Road; 
fighting  to  save  my  first  child,  the  Guardian ;  fight- 
ing to  give  strength  to  my  last  creation,  the  Orient. 
Can  you  imagine  such  a  fight  as  this? 

The  success  of  the  receivership  the  Gates- 
Harriman-Thalmann  crowd  were  positive  would 
forever  end  my  business  life,  so  the  fight  lasted  for 
weeks.  This  gave  a  great  chance  for  newspaper 
notices  to  make  my  burdens  with  the  new  road  still 
greater.  These  newspaper  notices  were  sent  to 
President  Diaz  and  other  friends  in  Mexico,  and 
wherever  they  would  have  telling  effect. 

In  Mexico  the  Guardian  Trust  Company  had 
been  made  a  legal  company;  that  is,  a  concession 
had  been  granted  for  it  to  act  legally  as  a  trust 
company  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico.  It  was  the 

109 


110  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

first  trust  company  from  the  United  States  to  be 
given  this  power,  and  this  meant  much  to  the  stock- 
holders. But  the  Gates-Harriman-Thalmann 
crowd  were  positive  this  receivership  would  destroy 
my  standing  in  that  republic. 

Before  the  application  for  a  receiver  for  the 
Guardian  Trust  Company,  the  Orient  Railroad 
was  moving  along  well,  considering  the  few  months 
since  its  birth.  From  all  parts  of  the  United  States 
people  were  subscribing,  and  we  shortly  had  a  mil- 
lion dollars  in  subscriptions.  I  had  heard  that  Mr. 
Gates  had  told  a  friend  of  his  that  he  would  "break 
the  Guardian,  and  as  Stilwell  was  the  largest  holder 
in  the  Guardian  Trust  Company,  this  would  break 
him."  I  had  read  in  the  papers,  as  I  have  before 
mentioned,  that  Mr.  Harriman  was  to  "handle  me," 
and  that  the  great  "rate-cutter"  was  never  to  be 
allowed  to  be  at  the  head  of  a  transcontinental  rail- 
road, so  the  fight  must  be  now  to  wreck  the  Guar- 
dian. As  long  as  I  had  that  company  back  of  me, 
I  had  great  power.  The  best  way  to  accomplish 
their  purpose  was  to  apply  for  a  receivership  of  the 
Guardian,  and  also  to  have  the  Reorganization 
Committee  of  the  Kansas  City  Southern  refuse  to 
pay  the  four  hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars,  and  in  this  way  cripple  the  Guardian  Trust 
Company  and  myself. 

It  did  not  seem  possible  that  any  such  conspiracy 
could  be  carried  out.  All  bonds  and  shares  in  the 
reorganization  of  the  Kansas  City  Southern  had 


FIRST  STEP  TO  BLOCK  ORIENT  ROAD   111 

been  deposited  with  the  understanding  that  this 
debt  should  be  paid.  This  agreement  to  pay  had 
the  names  of  Thalmann,  Gates,  Stillman,  Harri- 
man  and  others,  and  I  could  not  understand  that 
men  with  such  responsible  positions  in  the  business 
world  would  repudiate  a  debt  that  had  been  openly 
acknowledged.  Our  company  was  solvent,  it  had 
paid  every  demand  for  thirteen  years,  it  had  few 
obligations,  it  had  not  accepted  deposits,  and  it  had 
a  wonderful  earning  power.  I  little  knew  then  the 
power  of  money  in  the  courts,  but  I  now  understand 
how  thousands  of  poor  men  will  give  up  and  accept 
any  settlement  that  the  rich  man  may  impose  upon 
them,  as  they  know  they  cannot  stand  the  constant 
drain  of  court  costs. 

These  unprincipled  men  of  the  Reorganization 
Committee  could  not  bear  to  see  me  again  at  the 
head  of  my  trust  company,  with  two  million,  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  paid-in  capital  and  a 
good  surplus.  I  now  had  valuable  Mexican  conces- 
sions; I  had  the  friendship  of  the  leading  men  in 
Mexico;  I  had  the  backing  of  the  leading  bankers 
of  my  home  town ;  I  had  designed  a  railroad  which 
would  open  up  a  new  empire  of  wealth,  and  give  to 
my  beloved  Kansas  City  a  new  short  line  railroad 
to  the  Pacific.  But  all  of  the  rumors  I  had  heard 
did  come  true.  The  application  was  filed  by  Gates 
and  others  for  a  receiver  for  the  Guardian  Trust 
Company.  The  Kansas  City  Southern  also  started 
a  fake  suit  to  recover  the  amount  of  bonus  stocks 


CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

they  had  been  given  of  the  bond  sales  of  the  Belt 
Line  and  of  the  Port  Arthur  Channel  and  Dock 
Company  and  claimed  that  the  four  hundred  and 
seventy-five  thousand  dollar  debt  was  not  a  just 
and  valid  claim.  The  case  was  brought  before  the 
same  judge  who  had  granted  the  receivership  for 
the  Northern  Railroad  at  two  o'clock  in  the 
morning. 

We  were  ably  represented  by  Mr.  T.  L.  Chad- 
bourne,  now  of  New  York,  Judge  J.  M'D.  Trimble, 
of  Kansas  City,  and  J.  E.  McKieghan,  of  St.  Louis. 
It  was  a  strong,  clean  presentation  of  a  clean  case 
by  able,  painstaking  men,  but  all  during  the  trial  I 
could  see  that  the  judge  expected  to  grant  a  receiv- 
ership no  matter  what  the  testimony  was.  We 
showed  that  the  company  was  perfectly  solvent, 
that  we  had  two  million,  one  hundred  thousand  dol- 
lars paid  in,  and  ample  surplus.  We  had  a  list  of 
subscribers  who  were  willing  to  take  all  the  balance 
of  our  two  million,  five  hundred  thousand  dollar 
stock  at  par. 

On  November  30,  1900,  the  receivership  was 
granted.  The  decree  of  the  court  was  that  the  com- 
pany was  solvent  when  the  stock  was  sold,  was  now 
solvent,  and  therefore,  Gates  and  others  had  no 
right  to  recover,  but  that  the  great  holdings  of  real 
estate  in  the  Exchange  Building,  which  we  now 
owned,  the  Lyceum  Building,  the  Trust  Company 
Building,  and  the  Syndicate  Building  in  Kansas 
City  in  connection  with  the  Port  Arthur  Rice 


FIRST  STEP  TO  BLOCK  ORIENT  ROAD  113 

Farm,  were  acts  which  our  charter  did  not  permit, 
as  it  said  we  could  hold  real  estate  as  administrators, 
executors  or  assigns,  but  not  otherwise. 

Were  the  holding  of  real  estate  illegal,  how  easy 
to  have  given  the  company  two  years  to  have  dis- 
posed of  it,  or  we  could  have  at  once  transferred 
it  to  a  separate  company  and  divided  this  stock  as 
a  dividend  among  the  stockholders.  But  had  the 
judge  adopted  this  plan,  Stilwell  would  not  have 
been  hurt.  I  am  sure,  in  after  years,  Judge  Thayer 
recognized  the  fact  that  he  had  been  swayed  in  his 
judgment  and  used  as  an  innocent  tool  to  injure 
me.  I  understand  he  often  expressed  regret  for 
this  act. 

It  was  supposed  that  this  blow  of  a  receivership 
would  end  the  Kansas  City,  Mexico  and  Orient 
Railroad,  but  it  was  only  the  first  step  in  a  struggle 
which  has  lasted  to  this  day  even  though  the  promi- 
nent men  who  started  this  fight  have  passed  on. 
I  will  handle  this  subject  more  fully  in  the  next 
chapter. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  & 
MEXICAN  TRUST  Co. 

The  morning  of  November  30,  1900,  Judge 
Trimble  came  to  my  office  and  said,  "Mr.  Stilwell, 
you  were  correct.  The  unexpected  has  happened; 
the  court  has  put  the  Guardian  Trust  Company  in 
receivership  and  appointed  Judge  Black  as  receiver. 
It's  a  judicial  mistake,  but  it's  done." 

I  had  been  prepared  for  it  and  never  left  my 
chair  until  I  had  drawn  up  the  prospectus  of  the 
United  States  &  Mexican  Trust  Co.  I  headed  the 
subscription  paper  for  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  at 
once  went  to  see  my  great  friend,  Dr.  Woods.  He 
subscribed  and  gave  me  the  use  of  a  desk  near  the 
door,  and  he  and  Mr.  Rule  helped  me  get  subscrib- 
ers all  that  day,  and  when  evening  came  we  had 
thirty-five  subscribers.  Telegrams  and  letters  from 
5  far  and  near  and  cables  from  Europe  in  a  few  days 
gave  me  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  subscrip- 
tions, and  in  a  few  weeks  the  company  was  started. 
At  once  it  built  up  a  good  business,  and  has  been  a 
very  successful  company  from  that  day  to  this.  The 
contract  for  financing  the  road  through  the  Guar- 
dian Trust  Company  was  revoked  and  the  new 

114 


U.  S.  &  HEX.  TRUST  CO.  115 

trust  company  undertook  this  work.  For  a  time 
it  looked  as  if  this  blow  might  influence  my  work  in 
Mexico,  but  when  I  next  went  to  that  republic  I 
found  my  friends  just  as  strong  as  ever,  and  the 
new  trust  company  was  legalized  in  that  republic. 
An  office  was  opened  there  that  has  been  doing 
business  ever  since  in  that  republic. 

Judge  Black,  the  receiver  of  the  Guardian, 
started  to  liquidate  the  company.  No  more  honest 
man  ever  lived,  but  he  went  in  with  his  mind  pois- 
oned regarding  me  and  expected  to  unearth  any 
number  of  cases  where  I  had  enriched  myself  at  the 
company's  expense.  He  had  no  idea  of  the  value 
of  assets  and  had  never  had  any  business  training. 
The  first  sale  he  made  was  a  property  in  Texas  for 
one  hundred  and  forty-two  thousand  dollars.  The 
purchaser  of  this  within  ninety  days  refused  an 
offer  that  would  have  given  him  a  profit  of  over 
five  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  company  owned  thirty-eight  thousand  shares 
of  the  United  States  &  British  Columbia  Mining 
Company's  stock  carried  on  the  books  at  a  dollar 
a  share.  These  he  sold  for  this  price.  That  com- 
pany has  since  paid  in  dividends  on  these  thirty- 
eight  thousand  shares  nearly  five  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  or  nearly  sixteen  times  the  amount  received 
from  the  sale. 

The  stock  of  the  Western  Union  Land  Company 
he  sold  for  the  price  at  which  it  was  carried  on  the 
books,  and  sixty  days  later  the  dividends  paid  just 


116  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

equaled  the  amount  the  stock  brought.  I  then  went 
and  remonstrated  with  him  for  making  these  sales, 
and  he  said,  "Stilwell,  the  granting  of  this  receiver- 
ship was  a  great  mistake.  I  have  had  all  the  trans- 
actions of  the  company  gone  over  from  the  day  it 
was  started,  and  I  am  positive  that  never  before 
has  a  company  had  cleaner  management  than  this 
company.  It  is  honest  to  the  core,  and  I  want  to 
apologize  for  the  stand  I  took  towards  you  from 
the  start.  I  am  a  poor  man.  This  pays  me  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  per  year,  but  I  shall  at  once  give 
my  finding  to  the  court,  and  ask  that  the  receiver 
be  discharged."  This  he  did,  and  the  business  was 
put  back  into  the  stockholders'  hands,  its  business 
wrecked  by  an  application  for  a  receiver  and  its 
assets  dissipated,  and  by  as  honest  a  man  as  ever 
lived.  I  never  fail  to  tell  of  my  appreciation  of 
Judge  Black.  He  did  as  well  as  he  could  with  the 
light  he  had. 

The  company  could  not  go  back  into  business,  as 
the  lawsuit  of  the  Southern  did  not  permit  of  it. 
A  few  years  later  I  was  elected  Chairman  of  the 
Board.  Mr.  Prescott,  of  Kansas  City,  has  been 
nine  years  doing  all  in  his  power  to  force  the  South- 
ern case  to  settlement,  so  that  the  company's  long- 
suffering  stockholders  can  get  the  money  due  them. 
Oh!  the;  years  and  years  of  waiting  for  Judge 
Phillips  to  act  in  this  case!  I  doubt  if  any 
such  travesty  on  justice  has  ever  before  occurred. 
How  dare  men  like  Harriman,  Stillman,  Gates, 


U.  S.  &  HEX.  TRUST  CO.  117 

Thalmann  and  others  repudiate  their  printed  prom- 
ise to  pay  a  debt,  a  promise  given  to  all  bond  and 
share  holders.  The  bonds  and  shares  that  gave 
them  power  and  made  their  plan  operative  were 
deposited  with  this  promise  to  pay  made  and  the 
day  set  for  payment  after  the  members  of  the  Reor- 
ganization Committee  had  approved  of  it. 

But  watch  and  see  if  again  retributive  justice 
does  not,  in  the  Kansas  City  Southern  case,  make 
this  unjust  delay  cost  the  stockholders  of  this  road 
five  times  what  it  would  have  cost  them  if  the  pay- 
ment had  been  made  according  to  the  reorganization 
agreement. 

Here  I  wish  to  make  a  prophecy,  and  in  a  few 
months  you  can  see  if  I  have  read  aright  the  hand- 
writing on  the  wall. 

Few  stockholders  of  the  Kansas  City  Southern 
are  aware  of  the  claim  of  the  Guardian  Trust  Com- 
pany. They  are  not  aware  of  the  nearness  of  the 
case  to  final  verdict.  That  verdict  if  in  favor  of 
the  Trust  Company,  as  I  expect  it  to  be,  will  find 
the  road  less  prepared  to  pay  it  than  it  was  when 
the  road  was  reorganized  and  the  payment  was  due. 
The  payment  of  this  debt  may  cause  the  passing  of 
a  dividend.  This  in  turn  will  cause  the  stock  and 
bonds  to  be  depressed  and  the  total  loss  in  market 
value  will  be  five  times  or  more  the  total  of  the 
debt.  And  the  endeavor  of  the  first  directors  to 
keep  me  from  my  own,  to  prevent  me  in  my  work 
of  building  the  Orient  road,  may  prove  to  be  a 


118  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

costly  luxury  for  these  innocent  stockholders  of  the 
Kansas  City  Southern  Railroad,  whose  directors 
went  back  on  sacred  promises  in  order  to  hinder  and 
hurt  the  creator  of  the  road  for  which  they  were 
security  holders. 

"The  mills  of  God  grind  slowly  but  they  grind 
exceeding  small." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  PROGRESS  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD 

After  the  Guardian  Trust  Company  was  thrown 
into  the  hands  of  the  receiver,  I  at  once  organized 
the  United  States  &  Mexican  Trust  Company, 
with  Mr.  E.  E.  Holmes  as  vice-president.  This 
partially  overcame  the  blow  of  the  receivership,  but 
it  was  a  blow — as  it  was  expected  to  be — and  it  is 
a  wonder  I  was  able  to  rise  above  it. 

In  the  Orient  road  I  had  with  me  some  new  men, 
Mr.  W.  W.  Sylvester  and  others,  also  Mr.  N.  S. 
Doran,  the  former  auditor  of  the  Kansas  City  Belt 
road,  Mr.  H.  C.  Orr  and  Mr.  E.  H.  Shauffler, 
who  were  in  the  Southern  road  with  me. 

The  board  of  directors  of  the  Orient  was  com- 
posed of  prominent  men,  and  the  first  year  the  road 
moved  along  a  fairly  peaceful  path,  considering 
the  awful  blow  that  had  been  given  it  in  endeavor- 
ing to  shake  confidence  in  me  by  the  Guardian 
Trust  fight. 

A  few  months  after  the  Guardian  Trust  Com- 
pany receivership,  I  went  to  London  to  see  some 
friends  who  had  been  interested  with  me  in  the 
Southern  road,  D.  J.  Neame,  J.  C.  Taylor  and 
Lewis  Kendall,  men  without  whose  aid  I  fear  my 

119 


120  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

task  would  have  been  hopeless.  Mr.  Neame  and 
Mr.  Kendall  were  the  foundation  of  our  English 
Finance  Committee;  and  Mr.  Taylor,  a  most  com- 
petent man,  became  secretary.  I  spent  six  months 
in  England  forming  the  London  Finance  Com- 
mittee and  the  Voting  Trust,  and  before  I  returned 
to  the  United  States  I  had  interested  with  me  every 
man  in  England,  except  two,  who  were  interested 
with  me  in  the  Southern  road.  Never  had  any  man 
better  men  back  of  him,  all  high-minded  and  hon- 
orable. My  great  desire  was  to  bring  honor  to  them 
and  their  name.  How  I  struggled  for  the  goal  in 
anticipation  of  their  "Well  done,  faithful  servant!" 
Had  I  worked  for  England  and  her  colonies  as 
I  have  for  my  country,  honor  and  respect  would 
have  been  my  inheritance,  and  as  I  see  the  honor 
and  co-operation  my  countrymen  have  received  in 
Canada  in  developing  that  part  of  the  British 
Empire,  I  wish  that  when  I  lost  the  Kansas  City 
Southern  I  had  at  once  gone  to  Canada  and  helped 
in  its  development  and  thus  saved  these  financial 
cannibals  from  committing  such  crimes.  English- 
men would  never  destroy  a  solvent  trust  company, 
with  its  hundreds  of  stockholders,  for  the  sake  of 
smashing  one  man.  It  is  difficult  for  anyone  out- 
side of  this  system  to  understand  how  or  why  men 
will  destroy  solvent  banks  in  a  panic,  as  Untermeyer 
says  they  do.  When  the  Barings  failed,  England 
put  them  on  their  feet  and  left  them  with  their  name 
still  honored. 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD       121 

When  in  England  the  effort  was  made  by  New 
York  bankers  and  a  number  of  my  friends  to 
prevent  my  English  friends  from  joining  me  in 
this  new  road,  Mr.  Walter  Chinnery,  a  man  of 
great  influence,  accepted  the  vice-chairmanship  of 
the  Finance  Committee.  This  was  an  inestimable 
help  to  our  company.  Both  Mr.  Walter  and  Mr. 
Harry  Chinnery  have  been  of  great  help  in  com- 
bating these  attacks.  The  firm  of  Foster  &  Braith- 
waite  has  also  been  a  wonderful  help  in  overcoming 
this  New  York  bombardment,  and  words  cannot  ex- 
press my  gratitude  for  Mr.  J.  S.  Braithwaite's  work 
since  he  left  this  firm.  At  the  same  time  I  wish  to 
express  my  regret  that  these  "respectable  scoun- 
drels" have  been  the  means  of  bringing  to  these 
good  people  such  hours  of  worry  over  this  enter- 
prise. 

In  1902  the  work  of  grading  was  under  way  in 
Oklahoma,  and  the  townsites  of  Carman  and  Fair- 
view  opened.  The  lot  sales  in  both  places  were  a 
great  success. 

The  first  rail  was  laid  east  of  Chihuahua,  Mexico, 
March  20,  1902.  This  was  the  banner  year  for  the 
road. 

In  November,  1902,  Mr.  E.  Dickinson  resigned 
the  position  of  general  manager  of  the  Union 
Pacific  road,  and  accepted  the  position  of  vice- 
president  and  general  manager  of  the  Orient,  and 
I  am  very  thankful  to  Messrs.  Odell  and  Dumont 
Clark  for  bringing  this  about.  Mr.  Dickinson  is  a 


CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

big,  splendid,  broad  gauge,  loyal  man,  with  years 
of  railroad  experience  which  has  been  of  untold 
benefit  to  the  enterprise,  and  his  ability  and  genial 
companionship  have  been  of  inestimable  value  to 
me.  Mr.  Dickinson  had  confidence  that  all  of  my 
time  and  energy  was  devoted  to  the  winning  of  this 
great  fight,  and  my  confidence  in  him  was  bound- 
less. Never  during  these  ten  years  has  he  to  my 
knowledge  done  one  thing  that  any  stockholder 
could  with  justice  criticise.  And  to  Mr.  Dickinson 
and  Mr.  B.  B.  Thresher  I  owe  endless  gratitude 
for  their  support  and  assistance  when  the  path 
looked  very  dark.  Mr.  Thresher  was  my  most  val- 
uable help  in  the  field.  Others  could  not  stand  the 
strain  of  finding  their  work  blocked  day  by  day. 
But  Mr.  Thresher's  great  faith  in  the  enterprise 
and  his  high  regard  for  Mr.  Dickinson  and  me  kept 
him  at  his  task. 

In  other  countries  people  do  not  look  on  matters 
the  same  as  they  do  in  the  United  States.  Here 
we  have  for  years  seen  rich  men  slug  anyone  they 
wish  and  take  any  enterprise  they  covet.  Then  to 
cover  their  misdeeds,  they  have  the  impression  given 
out  by  their  willing  tools  that  their  victim  was  a 
poor  business  man  anyway,  and  could  not  succeed. 
Yes,  a  poor  business  man!  How  good  a  farmer 
would  you  be  if  every  day  when  you  were  cultivat- 
ing corn  you  had  one  or  two  Indians  endeavor  to 
take  you  from  your  plow  and  scalp  you?  Would 
you  be  a  good  farmer  ?  Could  you  succeed  in  culti- 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD 

yating  corn  and  at  the  same  time  guard  your  scalp  ? 

Notwithstanding  any  obituary  notices  sent  out 
by  these  cannibals  of  finance,  my  business  judgment 
was  good,  but  my  time  for  using  that  judgment  was 
limited  to  the  hours  between  the  attacks  of  this 
battery  of  evil. 

Take  the  court  record  of  the  tobacco  and  oil 
trusts.  Think  of  the  hundreds  of  our  good  Ameri- 
can business  men  ruined.  Take  the  record  of  the 
bloody  trail  of  this  business  juggernaut  car,  a  list 
of  the  crushed,  with  no  way  for  them  or  their  fam- 
ilies ever  to  regain  one  cent  they  have  been  robbed 
of.  Were  they  to  go  to  court,  before  they  could 
win  a  verdict  for  the  losses  caused  by  these  unfair 
business  methods,  this  system  would  drag  out  the 
trial  for  years  and  cost  them,  as  in  the  Guardian 
case,  more  than  their  original  loss. 

After  Mr.  Dickinson  came  with  us,  we  solved  the 
problem  of  building  the  line  over  the  Sierra  Madre 
Mountains  of  Mexico,  and  graded  and  finished  this 
section.  We  extended  the  track  from  Wichita  to 
near  Fort  Stockton.  We  built  east  of  Chihuahua 
eighty-one  miles.  We  built  in  from  Topolampo 
eighty-one  miles.  Cities  sprang  up  rapidly.  The 
population  of  Sweetwater  and  San  Angelo  doubled 
and  trebled.  When  the  road  went  into  receivership, 
it  was  at  least  sixty  per  cent  to  seventy  per  cent 
finished.  The  last  two  years  we  had  grown  very 
tired  of  the  opposition.  We  had  also  suffered  from 
crop  failures  for  three  years.  The  new  territory 


124-  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

and  towns  we  had  started,  in  place  of  increasing, 
decreased.  The  drouth  in  1910  was  the  greatest  in 
twenty-five  years.  Had  the  crops  been  as  good  as 
they  promised  to  be  this  year,  our  history  would 
have  been  very  different. 

Then  came  the  first  Mexican  insurrection,  which 
prevented  our  Mexican  trips.  With  the  help  of 
Mr.  F.  Hurdle,  of  our  London  Finance  Committee, 
and  the  untiring  work  of  Mr.  Thresher,  we,  in  con- 
nection with  the  London  office,  secured  subscrip- 
tions for  three  million  dollars  of  the  bonds.  This, 
with  the  bond  sales  we  could  make  while  this  work 
was  under  way,  we  were  positive  would  carry  us 
to  Alpine,  Texas,  and  place  the  road  on  a  safe  basis, 
as  it  then  looked  as  if  the  Mexican  trouble  would 
soon  be  over,  and  we  would  be  able  to  sell  ample 
bonds  during  the  year  to  push  the  work.  Soon  our 
friends  in  London  closed  the  five  million  dollar 
underwriting  in  Paris.  We  saw  our  task  of  finish- 
ing the  railroad  to  Chihuahua  would  soon  be  an 
accomplished  fact,  as  this  five  millions  would  not 
only  finish  the  road  to  Chihuahua,  but  also  to  Del 
Rio.  The  papers  in  London  mentioned  the  placing 
of  this  underwriting  in  Paris.  It  was  copied  in  New 
York  papers  and  a  few  days  afterwards  the  presi- 
dent of  one  of  New  York's  leading  banks  and  also 
the  president  of  one  of  the  New  York  trust  com- 
panies, intimated  to  some  of  our  directors  that  our 
five  million  dollar  sale  would  never  be  completed. 
This  some  of  our  officers  thought  was  only  an  idle 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD       125 

rumor,  but  it  made  a  great  impression  on  me.  I 
knew  the  power  of  these  people  if  they  wished  to 
exercise  it.  They  did  so  wish,  and  no  influence  that 
could  be  brought  to  bear  from  London  could  over- 
come this  New  York  opposition,  and  the  needless 
receivership  that  I  speak  of  in  the  next  chapter 
was  brought  on. 

What  a  wonderful  people  we  should  be,  and  what 
a  wonderful  nation  we  should  be,  if  we  were  more 
kindly;  if  we  understood  that  the  success  of  one 
is  the  success  of  all;  if  in  place  of  opposition  of 
men  who  try  to  build  up  our  nation,  we  had  a  few 
kindly  acts  and  encouraging  words! 

It  is  needless  for  me  to  say  to  my  stockholders 
and  friends  that  there  is  probably  nothing  in  this 
world  that  would  give  me  greater  pleasure  than  to 
finish  the  railroad  into  Kansas  City,  and  connect  to 
the  Pacific,  giving  to  the  four  thousand  persons  in- 
terested in  our  road  the  profits  that  are  sure  to 
come  with  the  completion  of  the  enterprise.  To  have 
been  able  to  finish  the  railroad  to  the  boundary  of 
Texas,  to  have  built  there  the  great  industrial  city 
which  I  am  sure  could  have  been  built,  to  bring  this 
great  blessing  to  the  people  of  western  Texas  and 
the  state  of  Texas,  certainly  would  have  been  to  me 
almost  compensation  enough  for  the  designing  and 
building  of  this  railroad.  But,  my  good  friends  in 
Texas,  I  did  my  level  best,  and  I  know  you  all  be- 
lieve it.  The  financial  interests  in  New  York  de- 
cided that  Stilwell  and  Dickinson  must  be  defeated 


126  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

and  they  have  done  all  in  their  power  to  see  that 
this  was  done.  You  were  entitled  to  my  work.  I 
love  your  great  state,  and  I  much  regret  you  should 
have  been  deprived  of  the  help  of  these  two  men, 
who  so  much  enjoyed  working  for  Texas.  The 
seeming  government  is  Washington,  but  the  real 
government  is  Wall  Street.  And  you  people  of  this 
great  state,  until  matters  change,  are  powerless  to 
have  any  railroad  built  in  Texas  unless  these  men 
of  Wall  Street  consent  to  allow  it. 

Before  I  finish  my  chapter,  I  want  to  picture  to 
my  readers  the  Orient  road  as  I  see  it: 

The  Kansas  City,  Mexico  &  Orient  Railroad 
is  one  of  the  greatest  enterprises  of  today ;  it  opens 
an  empire  of  wealth;  it  opens  one  of  the  treasure 
houses  of  the  world  in  the  mines  of  Mexico.  It  will 
build  a  port  that  will  rival  any  on  the  Pacific  coast ; 
it  shortens  the  line  across  the  continent;  it  makes 
a  great  short-cut  to  the  west  coast  of  Mexico,  Cen- 
tral and  South  America.  On  the  line  of  this  road, 
when  finished,  there  will  be  three  smelting  centers — 
the  smelters  now  at  Chihuahua,  smelters  at  the 
border  and  a  smelter  at  the  coast.  The  lumber  of 
the  Sierra  Madre  Mountains  will  find  a  market  as 
far  north  as  northern  Oklahoma.  It  will  supply 
all  the  ties  for  western  Texas.  Along  the  line  of  the 
finished  road  will  be  great  plants  treating  the  ore 
from  the  dump  heaps  placed  there  in  the  years  of 
long  ago ;  along  the  road  will  be  two  or  three  cities 
which  will  equal  Cripple  Creek  as  mining  centers. 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD       127 

The  port  of  Topolampo  will  be  one  of  the  great 
cities  of  the  Pacific;  it  will  have  its  line  of  steamers 
to  the  Orient,  Central  and  South  America,  New 
Zealand  and  Australia.  The  early  vegetables, 
oranges,  etc.,  which  are  one  month  earlier  than 
those  in  California,  will  come  in  train  loads  to 
Chicago  and  eastern  markets,  and  the  one  hundred 
miles  of  the  Fertie  River  Valley,  as  rich  as  the 
valley  of  the  Nile,  will  contribute  great  earnings  to 
the  road.  The  hundreds  of  thousands  of  acres  of 
level  land  east  of  Chihuahua  will  be  irrigated,  and 
the  cultivation  of  sugar  beets  and  cotton  furnish 
northern  Mexico  with  all  these  products  it  can  use. 

The  connections  at  Del  Rio  for  the  City  of  Mex- 
ico, at  Chihuahua  with  the  Mexican  Central  and  the 
Mexican  Northwestern,  and  the  connections  with 
the  Southern  Pacific  of  Mexico  on  the  west  coast, 
put  the  Orient  into  direct  connection  with  all  the 
important  roads  of  northern  Mexico.  Its  valuable 
contract  for  fixed  minimum  rates  for  ninety-nine 
years  in  Mexico,  its  freedom  from  snow  and  its  low 
cost  of  operation  on  the  six  hundred  miles  in  Mex- 
ico, give  the  road  great  strength.  I  am  convinced 
that  the  road  will,  in  two  years  after  it  is  completed, 
if  completed  by  people  who  wish  to  develop  it,  earn 
gross,  eighty-five  hundred  dollars  per  mile,  making 
net  between  five  million  and  six  million  dollars  per 
year.  Within  five  years  its  earnings  will  be  at  least 
twelve  thousand  dollars  per  mile  and  its  net  earn- 
ings nearly  ten  million  dollars  per  annum.  (There 


128  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

are  any  number  of  van  den  Bergs  who  will  deride 
this,  but  if  I  happen  to  be  president  of  the  Orient, 
this  is  what  the  earnings  will  be. ) 

The  future  of  the  Orient  road  as  a  money-maker 
can  be  fairly  estimated,  but  its  blessings,  when  fin- 
ished, to  the  territory  it  serves,  cannot  be  measured 
in  dollars.  The  wisdom  of  the  idea  has  been  passed 
on  by  some  of  the  greatest  minds  of  the  railroad  and 
financial  world  and  by  all  the  leading  men  of 
Mexico.  Its  wonderful  strength  when  finished  is 
its  weakness,  as  it  is  so  revolutionary  in  transporta- 
tion possibilities  that  it  has  antagonized  the  billions 
invested  in  other  roads.  So  there  have  been  erected 
for  its  officers  great  hurdles  to  jump.  Nature 
has  combined  with  them  in  three  crop  failures ;  and 
panic  and  insurrections  have  added  to  the  difficul- 
ties; and,  yet,  in  the  face  of  these  seemingly  insur- 
mountable obstacles,  nine  hundred  miles  were  con- 
structed and  over  two  hundred  miles  of  grade  were 
finished.  And  had  not  the  banking  interests  of  New 
York  prevented  the  placing  of  the  five  million 
dollars  of  bonds  in  France,  and  had  not  the  trouble 
in  Mexico  prevented  further  sales  of  bonds,  there 
would  have  been  no  receivership  and  the  officers 
could  have  finished  the  road.  None  of  these  condi- 
tions can  be  laid  at  our  door;  we  honestly  did  the 
best  in  our  power  and  achieved  wonderful  results 
in  the  face  of  conditions  that  would  have  caused 
others  to  give  up  long  ago. 

I  leave  the  Orient  road,  if  it  is  my  destiny,  having 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  ORIENT  ROAD       129 

done  all  in  my  power  day  by  day.  All  the  promo- 
tion bonds  paid  me  by  my  contract  I  have  used  for 
the  good  of  the  road  in  hundreds  of  ways,  as  well 
as  part  of  my  salary.  In  addition,  I  have  used 
thousands  and  thousands  of  dollars  of  my  income 
from  commissions  paid  me  in  lieu  of  salary  from  the 
Trust  Company.  I  did  wish  to  win  in  this  fight ;  I 
did  wish  to  gain  fair  compensation  for  my  work. 
For  such  great  work  a  man  is  entitled  to  have 
enough  to  retire  on  in  comfort  in  the  twilight  of  life. 
But  I  used  all  I  received  from  the  Orient  outside  of 
my  living  expenses  in  endeavoring  to  the  best  of 
my  ability  to  save  the  enterprise.  In  the  panic  of 
1907,  I  three  times  saved  the  road,  during  sixty 
days,  and  this  cost  me  over  eighty  thousand  dollars 
personally.  I  did  not  and  do  not  begrudge  it.  I  am 
sure  that  Mr.  Dickinson  and  all  around  me  in  those 
dark  days  will  bear  testimony  that  I  left  no  stone 
unturned  and  that  no  one  could  have  done  more  to 
save  the  investors  of  the  Orient  road. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  OBSTRUCTIVE  TACTICS 

If  there  is  one  thing  on  earth  I  would  like  more 
than  any  other,  it  would  be  a  glance  over  the  cost 
incurred  by  the  people  opposing  us.  It  would  total 
up  into  the  hundreds  of  thousands.  I  know  the 
detective  work,  the  repeated  trips  to  Mexico  to  see 
President  Diaz  and  have  him  cancel  our  concessions, 
the  attorneys'  fees  in  the  Guardian  Trust  Company 
case  that  perhaps  were  guaranteed  the  Southern  by 
these  people,  the  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  cables ; 
all  this  must  have  made  a  great  bill  they  might  never 
have  been  willing  to  assume  had  they  thought  Mr. 
Dickinson  and  I  were  such  good  fighters. 

The  persecution  started  with  the  deluge  of  letters 
to  President  Diaz  when  the  concession  was  granted. 
This  was  followed  by  attempts  by  one  of  the  leading 
railroads  to  get  Dr.  Woods  to  call  my  personal 
loans,  also  by  its  sending  the  treasurer  of  the  Bank 
of  Commerce  and  telling  Dr.  Woods  that  unless 
he  and  Mr.  Rule  at  once  resigned  as  directors  of 
the  Orient  road,  this  railroad  would  remove  their 
large  account  which  the  bank  had  had  for  years. 
It  was  no  pleasant  thing  for  the  bank  to  give  up 
this  account ;  but  it  did.  Telegrams  from  the  officers 

130 


OBSTRUCTIVE  TACTICS  131 

and  directors  of  this  railroad  did  not  move  Dr. 
Woods.  He  knew  that  I  was  a  live  asset  for  Kan- 
sas City  and  he  was  going  to  stand  back  of  me,  and 
he  always  did.  What  a  staunch  friend  he  was !  Had 
I  been  his  own  son  he  could  not  have  done  more  for 
me,  and  I  love  to  think  of  his  kindness  and  friend- 
ship. 

In  a  few  days  I  was  amazed  to  find  the  difficul- 
ties that  had  surrounded  me  in  the  Southern  were 
now  being  put  in  my  way  in  this  new  road.  We 
paralleled  no  other  road.  We  could  feed  all  roads. 
It  is  needless  to  take  up  the  reader's  time  with  the 
small  details  of  this  persecution.  I  read  in  a  New 
York  paper  that  Harriman  had  been  delegated  by 
the  Wall  Street  interests  to  see  that  I  was  once  for 
all  removed  from  the  railroad  world.  I  could  not 
quite  understand  this,  as  he  was  at  that  time  chair- 
man of  my  old  road,  but  as  I  had  not  one  mile  of 
the  new  road  graded,  it  looked  as  if  he  had  me  quite 
removed.  Now,  as  I  have  told  you  in  a  preceding 
chapter,  I  was  re-elected  president  of  the  Guardian 
Trust  Company,  but  I  did  not  then  know  what 
Untermeyer  has  since  told  us,  "That  in  times  of 
panic  it  destroyed  a  number  of  solvent  banks." 
That  they  were  heartless  and  merciless  enough  to 
destroy  my  trust  company  never  entered  my  head. 
But  you  have  read  the  history  of  all  this  devilish 
work  in  the  chapter,  "The  First  Step  to  Block  the 
Orient  Road." 

When  I  went  to  London  the  first  time  in  connec- 


132  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

tion  with  this  road,  day  after  day  people  told  me 
that  I  was  being  followed,  and  whenever  I  called 
on  a  friend  to  enlist  him  in  the  work,  he  would  later 
be  reached  and  warned  that  he  had  better  not  invest. 
When  Mr.  Taylor  and  I  went  to  Scotland  every 
move  of  ours  was  known  and  blocked. 

Bankers  and  brokers  were  reached  by  Thalmann 
and  Harriman  connections  and  warned  not  to  touch 
the  investment.  Mr.  Thalmann  told  the  manager 
of  one  of  London's  leading  banks  that  I  wrote  him 
each  week  asking  him  to  help  me  but  he  threw  the 
letters  in  the  waste  basket. 

Later,  when  Mr.  Dickinson  came  with  us  in  1902, 
the  late  president  of  the  American  Smelter  &  Refin- 
ing Company  advised  us  to  leave  New  York  for  a 
few  days,  as  he  said,  "You  are  followed  every  place 
you  go,  and  the  people  you  see,  like  myself,  warned 
not  to  invest  in  your  road."  That  same  day  I  called 
on  a  gentleman  on  upper  Broadway.  I  had  nothing 
to  say  regarding  the  road.  It  was  a  personal  matter 
entirely,  but  he  told  me  that  within  one  hour  he 
was  called  up  by  two  banking  houses  and  told  not 
to  invest  with  me. 

When  Mr.  Dickinson  and  I  went  to  close  our 
steamship  contract  with  The  Hamburg- American 
Line,  Mr.  Ballin  told  us  that  he  had  within  a  day  or 
two  received  two  cables  warning  him  not  to  deal 
with  us.  At  last  the  obstacles  were  so  great  that 
we  saw  it  was  useless  to  try  to  interest  people  in 
the  road  unless  we  could  take  them  over  the  prop- 


OBSTRUCTIVE  TACTICS  133 

erty.  We  must  counteract  statements  made  by 
different  prominent  people,  such  as  that  made  by 
the  president  of  a  leading  Western  road  to  one  of 
our  stockholders,  that  the  first  third  of  the  road  was 
in  competitive  territory,  that  on  the  second  third 
there  was  no  business,  and  that  the  last  third  was  all 
rocks.  So,  to  combat  these  false  statements  we 
started  the  trips  to  Mexico,  a  needless  expense,  but 
necessary  if  we  were  to  continue  our  work  of  build- 
ing the  road.  By  this  plan  we  could  interest  people 
in  our  work  so  that  this  outside  influence  was  less 
potent.  Every  one  who  saw  the  territory  the  road 
was  to  serve  became  a  convert.  It  was  not  so  easy 
for  these  "respectable  scoundrels"  to  convince  peo- 
ple by  argument  that  we  could  never  cross  the  con- 
tinental divide  of  Mexico  after  we  had  taken  them 
in  trains  over  this  part  of  the  road.  But  soon 
after  we  started  these  trips,  the  system  found  ways 
of  reaching  even  these  people.  On  one  trip  nine 
men  were  thus  reached  by  telegrams,  en  route  or  in 
Mexico.  We  gave  up  stopping  at  Kansas  City,  on 
account  of  so  many  of  our  guests  being  reached  at 
this  point.  We  often  changed  our  itinerary  and 
reversed  our  trip  to  throw  these  people  off  the 
track.  No  volume  could  recount  the  difficulties  we 
had  to  encounter.  A  partner  in  a  leading  house  of 
New  York,  a  man  whose  name  in  connection  with 
a  lawsuit  has  often  been  in  the  newspapers, 
requested  the  privilege  of  going  on  one  of  the  trips. 
I  asked  him  if  he  intended  to  help  me  or  did  he  want 


134  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

to  take  the  trip  only  to  get  acquainted  with  my 
English  friends.  He  assured  me  his  sole  desire  was 
to  help  Mr.  Dickinson  and  me  in  our  work.  Pie  was 
taken,  and  every  kindness  was  shown  him,  but  in- 
side of  a  few  months  this  man  was  in  London  meet- 
ing members  of  our  London  board  and  offering  to 
subscribe  for  fifteen  million  notes,  of  which  he  said 
J.  P.  Morgan  would  take  five  million,  provided  I 
was  eliminated  from  the  road.  This  man,  who  had 
invited  himself  and  promised  to  aid  us! 

Time  after  time  we  found  malicious  falsehoods 
were  used.  A  director  of  the  Liberty  National 
Bank,  a  director  in  numerous  trust  companies  and 
insurance  companies,  wrote  to  a  director  of  our  road 
advising  him  to  sell  his  bonds,  and  stating  he  had 
sold  his.  It  was  found  that  this  man  had  never 
owned  a  bond  in  our  road,  but  he  was  making  a 
great  impression  on  our  friends.  I  learned  of  the 
statement  he  had  made  and  wrote  and  offered  to 
pay  personally  ten  thousand  dollars  to  any  charity 
he  would  name  if  he  would  prove  he  had  ever  owned 
one  bond.  He  never  answered  the  letter.  This  man 
was  in  reality  a  kindly  man.  Great  pressure  must 
have  been  brought  to  bear  to  have  forced  him  to  do 
such  a  thing. 

This  is  only  one  example.  All  I  can  say  is  that 
every  obstacle  was  put  in  our  path  that  the  cunning 
of  unprincipled  man  could  devise.  This  malicious 
work  increased  the  cost  of  building  the  road  and 
made  half  our  time  of  no  avail.  No  doubt  had  it 


OBSTRUCTIVE  TACTICS  135 

not  been  for  this  warfare,  the  road  would  at  least 
be  connected  at  Chihuahua,  and  operating,  if  not 
finished,  into  Kansas  City. 

Before  I  close  this  chapter,  I  wish  to  show  how 
detectives  and  telephones  were  used.  Two  years 
ago  I  was  invited  one  day  at  twelve  o'clock  to  take 
lunch  with  one  of  New  York's  great  merchants. 
At  one  o'clock  we  sat  down,  and  as  we  were  about 
to  start  on  our  oysters,  a  messenger  brought  my 
host  a  note  which,  after  reading  and  tearing  off  the 
signature,  he  handed  to  me,  saying  it  was  from  a 
leading  banking  house.  The  note  advised  him  not 
to  invest  in  any  securities  of  the  Orient  road.  Can 
you  imagine  quicker  work  than  this? 

One  day  this  year  I  had  lunch  with  a  prominent 
manufacturer  of  New  York.  He  was  very  much 
interested  in  our  fight  and  agreed  to  find  me  a  mil- 
lion dollars.  At  three  o'clock  his  banker  called  him 
to  the  bank  and  told  him  if  he  had  anything  to  do 
with  me  in  a  business  way  or  socially  his  loans  would 
be  called. 

Detectives  and  tapped  telephones  were  contin- 
ually used  in  this  game  of  destruction. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

FROM  OUT  THE  GLOOM 

After  ten  years  of  legal  waiting  in  the  Guardian 
Trust  matter,  with  all  kinds  of  rumors  that  the  mis- 
management of  this  company  would  sooner  or  later 
come  to  light,  Mr.  D.  J.  Haff,  one  of  Kansas  City's 
leading  attorneys,  was  brought  by  Chicago  interests 
into  the  case.  I  wish  to  quote  a  letter  written  by 
him  to  me  later. 

It  was  unsolicited  by  me.  All  he  said  I  was 
aware  of;  so  were  all  of  my  stockholders  and 
directors  who  knew  me.  But  the  others  who  did 
not  know,  waited  years  and  years  for  the  expose 
that  never  will  come,  as  there  is  nothing  to  expose 
where  for  fourteen  years  the  president  and  officers 
followed  the  Golden  Rule  in  all  business  transac- 
tions. And  had  it  not  been  for  the  treachery  of  the 
Kansas  City  Reorganization  Committee,  with  its 
Harriman,  Gates,  Thalmann  and  others,  this  com- 
pany, today,  would  be  one  of  the  leading  financial 
companies  of  the  West. 

136 


FROM  OUT  THE  GLOOM  137 

"Law  Offices 

HAFF,  MESERVY,  GERMAN  &  MICHAELS 
Suite  906  Commerce  Bldg. 
Kansas  City,  Mo. 
December  second, 
Nineteen  hundred  and  Eleven. 
"In  re  Guardian  Trust  Matters. 
File  No.  2263. 
"A.  E.  Stilwell,  Esq., 
2600  Singer  Building, 
New  York  City,  N.  Y. 

"My  dear  Mr.  Stilwell: 

"I  am  herewith  sending  you  a  copy  of  my  brief 
in  the  case  of  the  Guardian  Trust  Company  vs. 
the  Kansas  City  Southern  Company  in  the 
United  States  Circuit  Court  of  Appeals,  and  I 
wish  you  would  kindly  read  it  over  carefully. 

"I  will  say  to  you  in  this  letter  what  I  have 
said  to  several  friends  in  this  city  since  my  study 
of  the  case,  and  that  is  that  this  enormous  record 
of  35,000  pages,  built  up  at  the  instance  of  and 
by  the  efforts  of  your  enemies,  in  their  attempt 
to  find  something  with  which  to  condemn  your 
business  conduct,  is  a  most  complete  vindication 
of  yourself  and  the  Guardian  Trust  Company. 
Although  it  covered  a  period  of  several  years, 
during  which  time  not  only  the  Guardian  Trust 
Company  was  organized  and  built  up  to  a  great 
and  powerful  concern,  but  also  many  other  enter- 


138  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

prises  promoted  by  yourself,  through  the  medium 
of  the  trust  company,  including  the  Kansas  City, 
Pittsburgh  &  Gulf  Railroad  Company,  the  Kan- 
sas City  Suburban  Belt  Railway,  the  Port  Arthur 
Channel  and  Dock  Company,  and  many  others, 
all  of  which  were  promoted  by  you  and  financed 
through  the  medium  of  the  Trust  Company,  it 
is,  nevertheless,  a  history  of  spotless  dealings,  and 
is,  in  fact,  I  believe,  the  cleanest  business  record 
that  I  have  ever  examined  and  one  which  will 
stand  as  a  monument  not  only  to  your  ability  as 
an  organizer  and  builder  of  great  enterprises,  but 
also  to  your  integrity.  I  was  particularly  sur- 
prised at  the  small  reward  which  you  took  for 
yourself  personally  in  all  cases,  and  also  for  the 
Trust  Company,  when  it  was  entirely  in  your 
power  to  do  what  you  pleased,  and  when,  I  be- 
lieve, nine  men  out  of  ten,  placed  in  the  same 
position,  would  have  been  far  less  modest.  I  feel 
it  my  duty  to  say  these  things  to  you,  and  to  ex- 
press my  opinion  as  a  result  of  my  study  of  this 
case.  I  may  say  to  you  that  I  was  surprised,  be- 
cause after  all  the  charges  that  have  been  made, 
I  entertained  the  fear  that  a  careful  study  of  the 
case  in  its  entirety  might  result  in  a  different 
opinion,  and  I  am  very  glad  to  be  able  to  give 
you  this  testimonial. 
"With  kindest  regards,  I  remain, 
"Sincerely  your  friend, 

"(Signed)  D.  J,  Haff." 


CHAPTER  XVII 

BLACKLIST  AND  RUIN 

As  I  said  in  the  first  chapter,  this  is  not  a  record 
of  business  life  in  Russia.  Had  I  been  a  crook,  or 
had  my  business  methods  not  been  clean,  I  could 
understand  what  I  shall  now  relate,  and  would 
accept  it  as  my  desert. 

It  does  not  matter  that  the  Money  Trust  is  back 
of  great  companies;  it  does  not  matter  that  these 
crimes  of  business  ruination  are  committed  by  rich 
men;  a  crime  is  a  crime  no  matter  whether  com- 
mitted by  rich  or  poor. 

But  notice  how  quick  and  prompt  justice  is  if  the 
perpetrators  of  crime  are  poor  men;  the  whole 
machinery  of  justice  of  the  government  was  used 
to  convict  the  McNamaras  and  send  them  to  jail 
for  their  destructive  work.  Yet  business  may  be 
destroyed,  thousands  of  stockholders  ruined,  men 
made  to  suffer  agony,  and  nothing  is  done.  No 
relief  can  be  accorded  them,  for  the  reason,  I  fear, 
that  Bryan  mentioned :  "The  people  in  power  know 
their  creators." 

Untermeyer  says,  "that  in  a  panic  they  often  de- 
stroy solvent  banks  that  would  have  been  saved 
under  a  proper  system." 

139 


140  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

What  a  power!  And  I  dare  not  remonstrate! 
I  dare  not  say  I  do  not  like  it !  I  dare  not  say  that 
this  is  not  the  land  of  the  free  that  our  ancestors 
fought  for! 

It  was  no  argument  with  Lincoln  that  the  slaves 
were  treated  well  by  their  masters;  they  were  yet 
slaves.  It  was  no  argument  with  the  world  that 
only  a  few  of  the  millions  in  Russia  went  to  Siberia 
and  suffered.  There  may  be  no  one  else  in  the 
United  States  who  will  suffer  the  injustice  that  I 
have  suffered,  but  that  is  no  argument  for  the  con- 
tinuance of  such  an  evil  power. 

The  people  who  steal  chickens  are  tried  by  a 
jury;  they  can  see  the  judge;  they  can  have  an 
attorney  and  introduce  evidence.  But  when  the 
Money  Trust  judges  you  guilty,  puts  you  on  the 
black  list,  you  cannot  see  your  accuser  in  person  or 
be  represented  by  counsel. 

Had  I  been  able  to  appear  before  the  representa- 
tives of  this  power,  had  I  been  able  to  say,  "Gentle- 
men, I  beg  your  forgiveness  for  whatever  I  have 
done  to  displease  you— 

"Think  of  my  record  of  construction  work;  think 
of  the  one  million  and  a  half  days  of  work  I  gave 
the  tie-cutters  alone  in  shaping  the  ties  on  the  new 
roads  I  built;  think  of  nearly  one  hundred  new 
cities  I  have  created;  think  of  the  great  harbor  I 
have  built;  think  of  the  fact  that  my  orders  for 
locomotives  in  1896,  which  were  the  only  new  orders 
given  to  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works,  and  the 


BLACK  LIST  AND  RUIN  141 

new  locomotives  built  by  the  Manchester  Locomo- 
tive Works,  were  the  only  orders  given  in  that 
panic  year." 

Now,  could  I  have  appeared  before  this  Money 
Tribunal  that  makes  or  breaks  by  their  orders 
American  men  and  institutions  ("In  times  of  panic 
it  often  destroyed  solvent  banks,"  says  Samuel 
Untermeyer) ,  I  might  by  recalling  my  work  to 
their  minds  have  prevented  this  sentence  being 
passed  upon  me  and  my  companions,  and  had  they 
allowed  me  to  be  present,  I  might  have  thought  it 
such  an  honor  that  I  would  have  accepted  their 
verdict  and  never  have  written  this  book,  which  I 
hope  will  help  to  change  conditions  and  perhaps 
help  elect  Governor  Wilson,  who  does  not  have  to 
remember  his  creator,  thanks  to  William  Jennings 
Bryan. 

Now,  for  my  first  knowledge  of  the  sentence 
imposed  upon  me  and  mine:  I  had  returned  from 
Europe,  and  filled  with  remorse  at  the  criticisms  of 
my  country  in  London  and  Paris  papers,  under- 
standing full  well  the  justice  of  it,  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  relate  in  a  book  the  growing  evils  in  the 
United  States,  in  and  out  of  Wall  Street.  So  I 
wrote  the  book,  "Confidence  or  National  Suicide." 
It  was  well  received  and  is  now  in  its  seventh 
edition. 

A  few  weeks  after  it  was  published,  I  went  to  the 
American  Exchange  National  Bank  to  renew  a 
loan.  I  was  always  glad  of  any  excuse  to  see  Mr. 


142  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

Dumont  Clark.  He  was  about  the  highest  type  of 
man  in  this  country,  as  all  who  knew  him  will  agree 
with  me.  He  was  just  a  big,  grand,  kindly  man; 
one  who  made  the  day  better  for  having  met  him. 
I  sat  down  and  told  him  my  mission.  When  he 
took  my  hand  in  his  and  said,  "Stilwell,  I  am  the 
only  man  in  all  of  New  York  who  would  loan  you 
a  cent,"  I  said,  "Well,  Mr.  Clark,  I  do  not  expect 
to  ask  any  one  else,  but  why?"  He  answered,  "You 
have  always  been  honest  and  straightforward  in  all 
your  dealings;  you  have  done  business  with  me  for 
fifteen  years,  but  you  are  on  the  black  list.  No  one 
is  expected  to  dare  loan  you  a  cent,  but  I  will  and 
always  will.  The  system  knows  that  I  do  not  agree 
with  such  methods.  They  are  not  proper,  and  I 
will  not  obey  their  dictates,  and  will  grant  you  the 
renewal." 

Think  of  my  feelings !  After  years  of  construc- 
tive work  for  my  nation,  as  great  a  work  as  accom- 
plished by  Cecil  Rhodes  for  his  nation, — his  reward, 
honor  and  respect ;  mine,  blacklist  and  ruin ! 

That  night,  what  feelings  of  humiliation!  The 
black  list!  The  black  list!  I  tried  to  let  my 
thoughts  revert  to  the  thousands  and  thousands  of 
homes  that  dotted  the  hillsides  and  plains  of  the 
West  through  my  constructive  work,  and  thus  get 
consolation. 

The  United  States  &  Mexican  Trust  Company 
had  kept  an  account  with  the  National  Reserve 
Bank.  We  had  a  good  balance  there  and  owed 


BLACK  LIST  AND  RUIN  143 

$40,000.  Our  balance  averaged  50  per  cent  a  few 
weeks  before  the  incident,  as  their  books  will  show. 
The  president,  Mr.  Allison,  telephoned  me  to  come 
down  to  the  bank  for  an  interview,  and  I  now  give 
you  that  interview  word  for  word: 

He  said,  "Mr.  Stilwell,  you  must  pay  the  Trust 
Company  loan." 

"Why?"  I  asked.  "The  loan  is  not  due,  and 
you  complimented  me  regarding  our  balance  here." 

"Yes,  I  know  that,"  he  answered,  "but  you  must 
take  up  the  loan." 

Again  I  asked,  "Why?" 

"I  will  tell  you  in  confidence,"  he  answered.  "You 
and  your  companies  are  to  be  ruined.  Two  of  my 
directors  are  inside  of  the  Standard  Oil  crowd  and 
have  found  this  out  and  told  me,  and  you  must  take 
up  the  loan  at  once." 

I  then  paid  part  of  it  and  the  rest  was  paid  soon 
after.  So  now  Mr.  Clark  had  told  me  I  was  on  the 
black  list;  now  the  president  of  the  National  Re- 
serve Bank  had  told  me  that  I  and  my  companies 
were  to  be  ruined.  I  suppose  both  referred  to  the 
same  order.  And  this  is  the  Land  of  the  Free !  I  was 
sentenced  by  an  unseen  tribunal !  Does  it  not  make 
your  blood  boil?  It  does  mine  as  I  recall  it.  But 
remember,  as  Samuel  Untermeyer  says,  "they  often 
destroy  solvent  banks  in  times  of  panic." 

Nothing  else  advanced  the  cause  of  freedom  for 
the  slaves  so  much  as  the  book,  "Uncle  Tom's 


144  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

Cabin,"  and  I  hope  that  this  straightforward,  plain 
story  of  my  battle  will  be  one  blow  in  the  fight  to 
free  the  slaves  of  the  Money  Trust. 

My  fight  is  not  against  wealth,  against  banks  or 
great  business  combinations.  These  are  a  part  of 
the  development  of  the  day;  but  when  wealth 
strangles  competition,  ruins  men  and  enterprises, 
it  is  time  to  call  a  halt.  We  do  not  need  to  count 
the  cost,  for  in  crushing  evil  nothing  is  lost,  but  all 
is  gained. 

Let  me  give  you  an  example  of  what  I  mean. 
Suppose  that  in  one  of  our  Western  states  there 
had  lived  and  thrived  for  years  a  great  band  of 
outlaws  who  had  defied  the  Government  and  were 
enabled  by  the  judicious  use  of  money  to  keep  the 
officials  of  this  Western  state  from  interfering  with 
them.  For  years  they  had  grown  rich.  They  had 
looted  isolated  mining  companies,  robbed  them  of 
all  the  cash  they  had  on  hand,  and  often  destroyed 
the  buildings.  They  had  waylaid  travelers,  and 
had  received  annually  large  sums  from  people  who 
did  not  wish  to  be  molested  and  were  willing  to 
purchase  immunity.  During  twenty  years  they 
had  thus  acquired  great  wealth.  At  last  the  United 
States  Government  takes  up  the  case  and  sends  a 
regiment  of  the  Regulars  to  destroy  this  band  of 
outlaws.  These  outlaws  now  notify  the  Govern- 
ment that  they  will  disband.  The  leaders  of  the 
organization  now  move  to  New  York  City  and  this 
great  wealth,  which  came  from  looting  and  destroy- 


BLACK  LIST  AND  RUIN  145 

ing  and  taking  from  men  their  all,  is  now  deposited 
in  New  York  banks  and  trust  companies,  and 
these  men  are  elected  to  the  directorships  of  these 
institutions. 

Do  you  suppose  the  people  of  the  land  would 
stand  it?  Do  you  suppose  that  out-of-town  banks 
would  dare  to  use  the  New  York  banks  which  had 
these  ex-brigands  and  outlaws  as  directors?  If 
such  a  thing  occurred,  it  would  mean  a  run  on  the 
bank  that  had  dared  use  any  of  these  New  York 
banks  or  trust  companies  as  their  correspondents. 

But  let  me  give  you  here  the  findings  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court,  the  unanimous 
opinion  of  the  greatest,  calmest  tribunal  of  our  land, 
quoted  from  the  Chicago  Examiner,  August  31st, 
1912: 

"That  the  facts  establish  that  the  assailed  com- 
bination took  its  birth  in  a  purpose  to  unlawfully 
acquire  wealth  by  opposing  the  public  and  destroy- 
ing the  just  rights  of  others,  and  that  ITS  EN- 
TIRE CAREER  EXEMPLIFIES  AN  IN- 
EXORABLE CARRYING  OUT  OF  SUCH 
WRONGFUL  INTENTS,  since,  it  is  asserted, 
the  pathway  of  the  combination  from  the  begin- 
ning to  the  time  of  the  filing  of  the  bill  is  marked 
with  constant  proofs  of  wrong  inflicted  upon  the 
public  and  is  strewn  with  the  wrecks  resulting  from 
crushing  out,  without  regard  to  law,  the  individual 
rights  of  others." 

Now  can  any  reader  see  any  difference  between 


146  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

this  imaginary  band  of  brigands  and  this  Standard 
Oil  group  ?  The  above  is  the  finding  of  our  great- 
est court,  and  Samuel  Untermeyer  in  his  interview 
in  the  New  York  World  of  July  2nd  says,  in  his 
summary  of  the  Money  Trust,  that  "in  a  panic  it 
destroyed  a  number  of  solvent  banks,"  but  Mr. 
Archbold,  the  president  of  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany, says  in  the  investigation  instituted  against 
him  in  Washington  that  if  the  Directors  of  his 
Company  had  not  opposed  him,  he  would  have 
contributed  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars 
more  to  the  Roosevelt  fund,  and  compared  the 
treatment  they  received  for  not  doing  this  to  treat- 
ment which  would  be  accorded  in  darkest  Abys- 
sinia. Now  this  treatment  which  he  refers  to  was 
the  filing  of  the  bill  against  the  Standard  Oil  Com- 
pany which  brought  the  verdict  I  have  just  quoted. 

Imagine  a  man  so  steeped  in  crime  that  he  thinks 
the  action  against  his  company  which  brought  the 
above  verdict  was  only  treatment  which  would  be 
accorded  in  darkest  Abyssinia!  Do  you  think 
Captain  Kidd  could  have  any  lower  conception  of 
right,  or  would  have  been  versed  in  more  kinds  of 
devilment  than  these  men  who  are  thus  indicted? 
Captain  Kidd  was  a  brave  man.  He  took  his  life 
in  his  hands;  these  men  did  not. 

The  Supreme  Court  says  in  general  in  its  verdict 
that  this  company  destroyed  the  just  rights  of 
others,  acquired  wealth  from  oppression;  that  from 
the  time  of  the  starting  of  the  corporation  until  the 
filing  of  the  bill,  its  path  was  strewn  with  the 


BLACK  LIST  AND  RUIN  147 

wrecks  resulting  from  the  crushing  out  without  re- 
gard for  law  the  individual  rights  of  others.  Add 
to  this  what  Untermeyer  says,  then  add  to  this  the 
conception  of  Mr.  Archbold,  and  then  tell  me  if  you 
think  such  men  are  fit  to  be  directors  of  great  banks 
and  trust  companies?  Can  men  like  these  be  en- 
trusted with  the  use  of  billions  of  deposits  of  the 
people  of  our  land? 

Do  you  doubt  that  these  Supreme-Court-con- 
victed,  self-confessed  criminals  would  have  ob- 
jected in  any  way  to  being  back  of  the  plan  to  seize 
the  Orient  Railroad?  Do  you  not  think  that  these 
people  who  have  so  enriched  themselves  by  taking 
from  others,  did  not,  for  the  sake  of  keeping  their 
hands  in  the  work  of  destruction  they  so  well  under- 
stood, start  in  to  rob  us  of  our  road,  as  the  easiest 
prey  in  the  United  States,  since  we  were  not  backed 
by  any  of  the  great  financial  interests?  The  presi- 
dent of  the  National  Reserve  Bank,  owing  to  what 
he  heard  regarding  their  plans  for  our  destruction 
insisted  upon  our  note  being  paid.  It  was  the 
president  of  a  great  national  bank  in  New  York, 
called  the  "Standard  Oil  Bank,"  who  told  one  of 
our  directors  that  we  never  would  get  our  money 
from  our  Paris  bond  sale.  My  financial  persecu- 
tion, the  statement  of  the  bank  examiner  in  Wash- 
ington, my  knowledge  of  how  the  comptrollers 
walk  out  of  their  offices  into  high  positions  in  New 
York,  enable  me  to  see  how  such  work  is  easily  pos- 
sible for  these  jail-immune  "respectable  scoun- 
drels." 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

FIFTEEN  YEARS  or  OBJECTING 

"Senator  Penrose  makes  an  authoritative  and 
very  useful  exposure  of  conditions  thoroughly 
wrong  in  American  politics.  He  exposes  to  the 
thinking  people  of  the  nation  the  vicious  mechanism 
of  our  party  government,  its  alliances  with  organ- 
ized money,  its  vital  relations  to  privilege.  What 
reformers  and  the  unpurchased  press  have  been  say- 
ing with  more  or  less  evidence,  this  arch-politician 
now  verifies  without  shame,  without  apology,  with- 
out any  conception  of  the  light  it  throws  upon  him- 
self, his  kind  and  the  forces  behind  his  candidate 
and  his  faction."  (Chicago  Tribune,  August  24, 
1912.) 

From  my  first  experience  with  the  power  of 
money  to  buy  in  the  halls  of  Congress  and  in  the 
courts,  the  right  to  slug,  unmolested,  American 
business  and  American  business  men,  I  have 
found  that  freedom  from  their  attacks  can  only 
be  purchased  by  enormous  court  cost  that  few  could 
stand,  and  then  only  after  a  wait  of  years,  as  in  my 
case  and  in  the  case  of  the  Guardian  Trust  Com- 
pany. I  have  had  to  wait  from  the  time  I  was  in 
the  prime  of  manhood  until  now  the  snow  is 

148 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  OBJECTING          149 

creeping  on  my  hair,  waiting,  waiting,  waiting.  As 
I  breathed  that  pure  Western  air  where  men  hardly 
know  how  to  combat  the  power  of  evil,  waiting  for 
justice,  seeing  my  stockholder  friends  pass  to  the 
great  Unknown,  still  waiting,  waiting  for  the  scales 
of  justice  to  move,  and  in  the  case  of  the  Guardian 
Trust  Company  I  am  still  waiting. 

When  I  saw  President  McKinley  desirous  of 
helping  me  in  the  Port  Arthur  fight,  but  so  helpless, 
hedged  in  as  he  was  by  the  special  interests  that  had 
bought  immunity  by  helping  to  elect  him,  and  ex- 
pected him  to  deliver  the  goods,  as  he  had  accepted 
the  help  their  money  gave,  I  was  appalled  when  I 
thought  of  that  extra  cost,  of  the  price  that  I  had 
to  pay  because  I  lived  in  a  land  where  the  right  to 
do  evil  could  be  purchased  by  contributions  to 
political  parties,  a  power  I  did  not  have  and  which 
no  power  on  earth  could  ever  make  me  accept.  I 
was  happy  that  I  could  say:  Never  have  I  with 
knowledge  done  any  man  wrong.  Never  have  I 
written  any  letter  which  would  make  anyone's 
burden  greater.  I  always  have,  and  do  now,  con- 
sider that  all  men  are  my  brothers. 

I  have  fought  with  this  idea  in  view  and 
shall  until  the  end.  Profit  any  other  way 
I  do  not  want.  All  this  mad  rush  for  millions 
is  a  mistake.  The  desire  of  a  few  to  control 
and  make  slaves  of  the  men  who  attempt  big 
things  is  a  crime.  They  never  on  earth  would  have 
been  allowed  to  go  as  far  as  they  have,  had  it  not 


150  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

been  that  people  and  parties  that  desire  power 
were  willing  to  bow  at  the  feet  of  evil,  which  they 
think  is  a  station  on  the  road  that  leads  to  their 
desired  goal.  Then  these  great  interests  have  so 
long  been  able  to  pay  millions  for  the  privilege  of 
being  personally  unmolested  in  thwarting  and 
defeating  men  like  Moffat,  myself,  and  others,  that 
they  really  now  think  it  a  sacred  duty  of  the  people 
to  bow  to  their  wishes.  I  do  not  at  all  doubt  that 
these  people  really  think  it  was  great  impudence 
for  Mr.  Dickinson  and  myself  to  dare  to  build  the 
Orient  road. 

Do  you  people  of  the  West,  do  you  people 
who  love  liberty,  you  whose  ancestors  fought 
for  freedom  from  England,  you  who  fought — or 
your  ancestors  did — to  free  the  slaves,  think  I  was 
right  in  believing  this  was  the  Land  of  the  Free? 
Did  I  do  right  in  thinking  that  U.  S.  stood  for 
the  United  States,  and  not  us,  as  these  power- 
protected  people  think?  For  fifteen  years  I  have 
protested  with  tongue  and  pen  against  this  power, 
protested  that  it  was  criminal,  that  it  was  unjust, 
that  we  should  be  forced  by  unnatural  conditions 
to  see  our  work  cost  millions  it  would  not  have  cost 
had  it  not  been  for  this  unrelenting  power  of 
destruction  that  made  us  frequently  build  forts  to 
protect  us  from  this  power  of  evil,  forts  of  protec- 
tion that  would  be  needless  had  we  only  natural 
conditions  to  meet.  We  were  just  men.  We  wanted 
just  our  dues,  to  give  our  stockholders  just  what 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  OBJECTING          151 

they  expected.    But  there  is  small  show  for  the  just 
when  the  unjust  are  so  powerful. 

What  sleepless  nights,  thinking  of  the  attack 
from  some  new  source,  to  return  to  Kansas  City  to 
attend  to  pressing  matters  down  the  road  and  re- 
ceive telegrams  the  first  day  calling  you  back  East 
to  repair  some  damage  done  by  this  power  of  evil — 
all  a  needless  expense,  all  needless  worry,  sapping 
your  very  life  in  the  effort  to  do  well  what  you 
understand  how  to  do,  but  so  thwarted  and  harassed 
that  you  can  hardly  do  anything  well,  and  must  suf- 
fer criticism  where  there  was  no  need,  had  not  your 
hours  and  days  been  so  taken  up  in  endeavoring  to 
protect  your  property  from  these  financial  can- 
nibals that  you  had  no  time  to  do  well  the  work  you 
understood.  All  the  time  you  have  hopes  that  these 
merciless  trackers  will  stop.  You  think  perhaps  the 
road  will  soon  reach  a  stage  where  they  will  give  up 
and  let  you  alone,  but  it  does  not  come.  Their 
Ruin  Department  works  night  and  day,  and  like 
the  western  cowboys  who  walk  the  wild  horse  down, 
they  keep  at  it  until  you  are  tired  out.  Either  they 
succeed  in  taking  your  enterprise  from  you  by  an 
unnecessary  receivership  brought  on  by  their 
methods,  or  you  give  up  life  rather  than  see  the 
work  of  your  mind  and  hands  taken  from  you. 

I  herewith  give  you  part  of  an  article,  "Hunting 
the  Wild  Horse  of  the  West,"  from  the  August 
number  of  the  Wide  World. 


152  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

"Many  strategies  have  been  practiced  in 
attempts  to  capture  outlaw  horses.  One  of  the 
most  novel  methods — and  almost  ludicrous,  at 
first  thought — is  to  'walk  them  down.'  The 
scoffer  would  think  it  a  joke  of  the  season  to  say 
that  a  wild  horse  can  be  walked  down  by  a  slow, 
plodding  man,  when  it  cannot  be  run  down  by 
half-a-dozen  of  the  swiftest  saddle-horses  of  the 
country.  It  is  the  same  paradox  that  the  gold- 
hunters  in  Alaska  testify  to  when  they  state  that 
a  man  can  carry  a  bigger  pack  than  a  horse, 
through  long  marches  over  the  rough,  hard 
trails. 

"Two  or  more  men  work  together  in  the  walk- 
ing-down game.  Doubtless  the  wild  horses  con- 
sider it  more  or  less  of  a  joke  at  first,  when  they 
are  startled  by  the  approach  of  a  strange-looking 
two-legged  creature.  They  snort  and  throw  up 
their  heads,  race  a  half-mile  or  more  over  the 
ridge  and  then  settle  down  to  feeding.  But  the 
strange  figure  soon  appears  again,  always  headed 
directly  toward  them,  and  always  advancing, 
always  slowly  approaching.  They  snort  and 
sniff,  trot  or  gallop  again  over  the  ridge  and 
again  begin  to  feed.  The  black  speck  once  more 
comes  into  sight,  and  grows  distinct,  and 
approaches,  and  threatens,  and  scares.  This  time 
the  wild  horses,  with  a  growing  sense  of  uneasi- 
ness, may  dash  out  and  race  for  several  miles  with 


FIFTEEN  YEARS  OF  OBJECTING          153 

all  the  energy  they  would  display  if  "jumped" 
by  half-a-dozen  wildly-whooping  horsemen. 

"It  may  be  two  hours  by  this  time  before  the 
always-advancing  foot-man  comes  in  sight,  he 
having  been  forced,  perhaps,  to  follow  the  tracks 
of  the  animals  for  the  last  few  miles  through  the 
thick,  low  junipers  of  the  desert,  where  the  horses 
feel  themselves  safe  from  every  pursuit.  If 
instinct  did  not  keep  the  herd  to  a  fairly  compact 
and  definite  range,  there  might  be  complications 
in  the  plans  of  the  'walkers.'  But  even  the  wild 
horse  cannot  deny  or  get  away  from  the  domes- 
ticity in  his  blood.  He  loves  his  old  haunts,  the 
familiar  trails,  the  fathomed  watering-holes. 
Drive  him  away  a  hundred  miles,  two  hundred 
miles,  and  he  will  always  return.  And  he  will, 
unlike  the  cow,  come  back  by  the  straightest  line, 
even  though  he  may  have  been  driven  away  by 
a  circuitous  road  that  would  have  bewildered  a 
human  being. 

"So,  when  the  short  summer  night  comes,  the 
walker  who  is  on  duty  merely  builds  the  last  of 
a  string  of  signal  fires,  and  in  an  hour  or  so  at 
the  most  his  partner  has  caught  him  up  with  the 
pack-horse  and  the  water-bottles.  With  a  few 
hours'  sleep  the  walker  is  again  after  the  wild 
horses,  surprising  them  almost  before  daylight 
and  hours  before  they  will  have  had  all  the  grass 
and  rest  that  they  want.  Of  course,  the  two  men 
can  interchange  duties  at  any  time,  for  it  may  be 


154.  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

weeks  before  the  leaders  are  tired  out.  After  a 
time  the  eternally-following,  pestering,  torment- 
ing walker  will  become  to  the  wild-horse  herd  a 
haunting  apparition.  They  will  try  by  every 
means  to  shake  off  the  spell,  to  hide  themselves, 
to  lose  themselves  in  the  trailless  rock-piles  or  the 
ragged,  deep  canyons.  But  always  the  strange, 
hated,  plodding  walker  finds  them,  and  they  must 
trot  wearily  on,  though  tired  almost  to  death 
through  loss  of  sleep  and  lack  of  food  and  water." 

This  is  a  good  illustration  of  my  case.  They  have 
been  at  it  since  I  refused  to  do  Kountz's  bidding. 
They  have  pursued  it  year  by  year.  But  I  still 
expect  to  live ;  I  still  expect  to  breath  the  free  air, 
unmolested  in  honest  endeavors. 


CHAPTER  XIX 
WHAT  I  KNOW 

Note — This  chapter,  while  devoted  to  the  stock- 
holders of  the  Orient  road  will  also  be  of  interest 
to  my  other  readers. 

To  the  Stockholders  of  the  Orient  Road : 

If  the  play  written  and  staged  by  these  Financial 
Cannibals  can  be  carried  out  act  by  act,  you  will 
be  confronted  with  a  great  and  needless  loss.  You 
will  suffer,  not  only  the  loss  of  your  investment, 
but  also  the  great  profit  which  would  accrue  to  you 
if  Mr.  Dickinson  and  I  could  finish  this  road.  And 
I  can  assure  you  that  if  I  could  still  remain  at  the 
head  of  the  road  and  secure  twenty  to  twenty-five 
millions  to  complete  it,  your  profits  soon  after  its 
completion  would  be  equal  to  all  the  gold  mined  in 
the  United  States  in  one  year.  These  people 
oppressing  us  know  this,  otherwise  they  would  not 
for  years  have  hounded  and  thwarted  Mr.  Dickin- 
son and  me  as  they  have.  Either  they  fear  that  if 
this  road  were  finished  it  would  take  from  existing 
roads  great  earnings,  and  thus  enrich  you ;  or  they 
fear  the  two  men  who  finish  this  road  would  be 

155 


156  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

too  powerful  in  western  and  national  financial  life, 
and  this  they  desire  to  prevent. 

If  it  is  a  group  of  men  interested  in  transconti- 
nental railroads  who  are  doing  this,  I  do  not  believe 
that  J.  P.  Morgan  or  James  J.  Hill  have  anything 
to  do  with  it,  as  I  do  not  think  either  of  these  men 
would  stoop  to  such  methods.  Mr.  Allison  told 
me  the  Standard  Oil  group  was  going  to  ruin  me, 
and  from  the  daily  disclosures  in  the  papers  it  can- 
not be  difficult  for  anyone  to  believe  that  they  are 
part  of  the  group.  When  you  think  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  these  men,  when  you  think  that  men  with 
these  principles  are  directors  in  leading  banks  in 
New  York,  when  you  think  that  men  who,  in  a 
panic,  destroyed  a  number  of  solvent  banks,  as 
Samuel  Untermeyer  says  the  Money  Trust  did, 
who  wreck  enterprises,  who  rob  the  government  by 
false  scales,  by  undervaluation  of  coffee,  etc.,  and 
yet  have  remained  on  boards  of  great  New  York 
financial  institutions,  you  can  understand  what  a 
power  for  evil  we  have  had  to  contend  with.  Had 
I  wished  to  write  this  book  two  weeks  ago,  it  would 
have  been  impossible;  now  the  nation  seems  to  be 
crying  for  freedom  from  these  unjust  conditions. 
Had  I  written  this  book  two  weeks  ago  and  told  you 
then  what  I  am  able  to  tell  you  now  (thanks  to  Mr. 
Hearst  and  his  great  papers),  you  never  would 
have  believed  it.  I  could  not  have  told  you  then 
that  Mr.  Archbold  was  a  "respectable  scoundrel," 


WHAT  I  KNOW  157 

but  now  I  will  herewith  quote  from  the  American 
the  substantial  proof. 

How  often  have  the  words  of  this  article  been 
voiced  by  me !  It  is  what  for  years  I  have  thought 
of  these  Financial  Cannibals ;  what  for  years  I  have 
said;  what  for  years  my  friends  have  cautioned  me 
against  saying!  But  my  day  has  come.  The  law 
of  Retributive  Justice  never  fails.  Read  what  the 
American  editorial  says: 

"It  is  probable  that  Archbold  has  corrupted 
so  many  men,  has  dealt  in  men's  souls  so  long 
— that  he  has  lost  all  moral  sense  of  percep- 
tion" 

And  there  is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  the  sec- 
tion of  the  Money  Trust  that  has  been  dealing  with 
me,  destroying  my  standing  and  credit,  are  all  in 
this  class  with  Archbold. 

What  an  honor  to  have  such  men  for  enemies! 
Thank  God  my  methods  are  repulsive  to  them ! 

But  let  me  assure  my  readers  that  the  day  of 
Righteousness — Rightness — is  near  at  hand.  Soon 
the  people  will  rise  up.  They  will  see  to  what 
extent  the  nation  has  been  corrupted  with  money. 
They  will  see  that  out  of  each  pay  enevelope  tribute 
has  gone  to  these  men  the  American  calls  "respect- 
able scoundrels."  Then  watch  the  cleansing  process ! 
New  York  State  and  other  states  will  have  gov- 
ernors who  will  aid  the  government  in  uncovering 
conspiracies  and  the  work  of  the  Money  Trust. 
New  York  banks  will  not  be  able  to  hold  their  de- 


158  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

posits  and  keep  "respectable  scoundrels"  on  their 
boards.  Clubs  will  renovate  their  membership,  and 
honest  men  like  Stuyvesant  Fish  and  others  who 
occupy  important  positions  at  the  head  of  railroads 
will  be  able  to  retain  their  positions. 

I  herewith  give  you  the  scathing  editorial  from 
the  American,  of  August  28,  1912,  which  by  its  ex- 
poses will,  I  know,  change  the  history  of  the  United 
States : 

"Archbold,  Respectable  Scoundrel,  as  Pictured  in 
His  Own  Testimony. 

"It  is  a  portrait  not  merely  of  himself  but  of  the 
corporation — its  methods,  its  morals  and  its  pur- 
poses— which  the  testimony  of  John  D.  Archbold 
paints. 

"He  testifies  that  in  the  campaign  of  1904  Cor- 
nelius N.  Bliss,  then  treasurer  for  the  Roosevelt 
campaign  committee,  came  to  him  and  urged  him 
to  contribute  $125,000.  It  was  agreed  that  Senator 
Penrose  was  to  have  $25,000  of  this  for  his  own  uses. 
Mr.  Archbold's  company  had  been  publicly  at- 
tacked by  President  Roosevelt  the  previous  year  in 
connection  with  the  legislation  creating  the  Depart- 
ment of  Commerce  and  Labor  and  the  Bureau  of 
Corporations. 

"The  Standard  Oil  disliked  the  proposed  legisla- 
tion and  sent  telegrams  to  all  its  secret  agents  in 
Congress  to  have  the  law  amended.  President 
Roosevelt  learned  of  these  telegrams,  called  about 
twenty  newspaper  men  to  the  White  House,  told 


WHAT  I  KNOW  159 

them  all  about  it  and  asked  them  to  print  it.  The 
result  was  a  very  interesting  exposure — and  the 
prompt  passage  by  Congress  of  the  legislation 
Roosevelt  desired. 

"Archbold  in  his  testimony  refers  to  this  incident 
as  'adverse  newspaper  talk,  coming  from  Roose- 
velt.' He  said  he  was  therefore  unwilling  to  give 
the  $100,000  until  (we  quote  from  his  testimony) 
'I  was  assured  that  it  would  be  gratefully  received 
by  the  powers  that  be.  I  meant  the  President.  J 
mentioned  Roosevelt  by  name/ 

"Mr.  Bliss,  he  says,  assured  him  that  it  would  be 
appreciated  by  President  Roosevelt,  and  Mr.  Arch- 
bold  swears  that  he  then  gave  Mr.  Bliss  the  $100,- 
000  in  currency,  in  $1,000  bills.  About  a  fortnight 
later  Mr.  Bliss  'again  called  on'  Archbold,  assured 
him  'of  Roosevelt's  appreciations'  (we  are  still  quot- 
ing from  Archbold's  testimony)  and  demanded 
$150,000  more. 

"Archbold  was  willing  to  give  this  also,  he  swears, 
provided  he  was  sufficiently  sure  that  Roosevelt 
approved  it.  But  other  directors  of  the  Standard 
refused  to  make  the  second  contribution.  They 
evidently  doubted  the  delivery  of  the  goods. 

"Mr.  Bliss  again  called  on  Archbold,  according 
to  the  testimony,  told  him  the  Standard  Oil  was 
making  'a  serious  mistake,'  urged  'him  to  recon- 
sider,' told  him  the  money  'was  needed,'  and  'that 
if  he  didn't  give  it  somebody  else  would.'  He  again 
refused. 


160  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

"Later  President  Roosevelt  attacked  the  Stand- 
ard Oil  again  and  had  it  indicted  in  five  states. 
Archbold  thus  testifies  about  these  attacks  by 
Roosevelt : 

'There  never  was  a  more  outrageous  course  of 
action  taken  on  the  part  of  any  administration  in 
any  nation  of  the  world.  Darkest  Abyssinia  never 
saw  anything  like  the  course  of  treatment  which  we 
experienced  at  the  hands  of  the  administration  fol- 
lowing Mr.  Roosevelt's  election  in  1904.' 

"Archbold  and  H.  H.  Rogers  went  to  Bliss,  who 
said :  'I  am  sorry  to  say  that  it  is  to  me  a  humili- 
ation. I  have  no  influence  with  Mr.  Roosevelt.' 
Archbold's  testimony  continues : 

"Question  by  Senator  Clapp — 'Was  anything 
said  at  the  time  between  you  with  respect  to  your 
having  made  a  mistake  in  n6t  making  this  second 
contribution  ?' 

"Answer  by  Archbold — 'Mr.  Bliss  was  not  the 
man  to  say  "I  told  you  so."  The  inference  in  the 
whole  matter  to  anybody  who  will  analyze  it  was 
very  plain.  The  substance  of  it  was  that  Mr.  Bliss 
probably  undoubtedly  expressed  himself  that  it 
would  have  been  different  if  we  had  done  as  he 
wished  us  to  do,  and  I  myself  have  no  doubt  what- 
ever on  that  question.' 

"Mr.  Archbold  was  then  asked  how  well  he  knew 
Cornelius  N.  Bliss.  He  replied: 

"  'I  had  known  him  for  many  years/ 


WHAT  I  KNOW  161 

'Was  he  not  a  man  of  particularly  high  char- 
acter?' asked  Senator  Clapp. 

rel  never  knew  a  higher*  Archbold  testified.  fl 
would  trust  him  with  anything' 

"These  words  complete  the  portrait  of  Archbold 
— by  himself.  He  has  just  described  his  efforts  to 
buy  a  President  and  his  failure. 

"After  attributing  to  Mr.  Bliss  the  actions  of  a 
simple  blackmailer  and  stool  pigeon,  he  says  he 
'never  knew  a  higher  character.' 

"It  is  probable  that  Archbold  has  corrupted  so 
many  men — has  dealt  in  men's  souls  so  long — that 
he  has  lost  all  moral  sense  of  perception. 

"Archbold  required  no  assurances  from  anybody 
as  to  the  $25,000  that  he  paid  Penrose.  He  knew 
exactly  what  he  was  getting.  He  says  Bliss  gave 
him  a  receipt,  but  he  cannot  find  it.  But  he  had 
no  difficulty  in  finding  and  producing  at  once  the 
original  messages  sent  by  Senator  Flinn  and  the 
cipher  messages  of  reply  when  his  employe,  Sen- 
ator Penrose,  alias  Fanning,  wanted  them. 

"Archbold's  word  as  to  receipts  and  as  to  all 
other  matters  needs  corroboration.  But  his  portrait 
of  himself  in  his  testimony  is  complete." 

Some  day  the  poor  offender  alone  will  not  occupy 
the  jails.  Some  day  debauching  the  nation  will  be 
a  penitentiary  offense.  Some  day  crushing  and 
ruining  stockholders  of  great  enterprises  will  be  a 
penitentiary  offense.  Some  day,  in  its  indignation, 


162  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

the  nation,  thwarted  so  long  by  the  Standard  Oil 
and  other  powerful  interests  in  getting  needed  legis- 
lation, will  enact  such  great  inheritance  taxes  that 
families  who  breed  "respectable  scoundrels"  will 
have  less  money  to  hand  down  to  the  "third  and 
fourth  generations"  to  perpetuate  these  evil 
methods. 

I  long  to  see  the  day  when  in  Wall  Street  "re- 
spectable scoundrels"  have  no  power.  I  long  to  see 
the  day  when  the  honest  men  of  Wall  Street  now 
doing  a  small  business  will  have  freedom  and  power, 
and  they  will  not  be  told,  as  Mr.  Lounsberry  was 
when  he  attempted  to  help  us,  that  if  he  did  in  any 
way  help  us  he  would  be  ruined. 

O  for  the  day  when  this  word  ruin  will  not  echo 
and  re-echo  in  the  banks  of  New  York  and  our 
land! 

For  you  to  confront  loss,  my  stockholders,  in 
your  investment,  is  not  an  unheard  of  thing.  I  can 
give  you  any  number  of  instances  of  losses  in  other 
railroads,  railroads  that  have  not  had  what  we  have 
had  to  contend  with,  railroads  these  Financial  Can- 
nibals did  not  wish  to  devour,  railroads  that  have 
not  fought  three  years  of  drought,  railroads  that 
have  not  had  Mexican  insurrections  to  deal  with. 
The  loss  in  market  value  of  Chicago  &  Alton,  a 
Harriman  enterprise,  in  the  last  five  years,  is  nine 
million,  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  loss  in 
market  value  of  Chicago  and  Great  Western,  a 
Morgan  road,  in  the  last  two  years,  is  seventeen 


WHAT  I  KNOW  163 

million,  four  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  loss  in 
the  market  value  of  the  Denver  &  Rio  Grande,  a 
Gould  road,  in  five  years  is  twenty-two  million  dol- 
lars. So  you  see  others  besides  the  Orient  Railroad 
have  suffered  loss.  But  their  losses  were,  in  a  way, 
from  natural  conditions.  Your  losses  in  the  Orient 
Road  are  from  unnatural  causes. 

But  I  wish  to  qualify  what  I  say  above  concern- 
ing natural  causes.  They  are,  more  or  less,  un- 
natural causes.  As  the  radical  legislation  of  some 
of  the  Western  states  regarding  railroads  is  due 
more  or  less  to  the  legislators  of  these  states  thus 
attempting  to  hit  the  investments  of  these  " respect- 
able scoundrels"  whom  they  know  by  their  corrupt 
methods  have  debauched  business  and  increased  the 
price  of  living  so  that  they  might  wallow  in  a  trough 
filled  with  gold,  and  while  wallowing,  now  and  then 
kick  out  some  of  their  surplus  to  fall  into  the  hands 
of  a  university,  hospital,  or  ice  fund,  to  draw  atten- 
tion for  the  time  being  from  their  swinish  traits. 

The  first  act  in  the  play  "How  we  grab  others' 
work" — the  receivership — has  been  acted.  The  years 
of  persecution  was  the  overture.  It  was  a  long 
overture,  and  I  will  admit  it  had  many  funereal 
strains  which  often  got  on  my  nerves.  The  second 
act,  a  committee  formed  without  me  on  it  to  help 
fight  the  battles,  is  also  over.  The  third  act  is  to 
separate  our  faithful  General  Manager  from  the 
property.  These  people  think  the  stage  is  now  set 
for  this  act.  With  no  shepherd  to  guard  the  sheep, 


164  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

these  financial  wolves  can  then  have  full  sway,  and 
the  curtain  will  be  rung  down  on  the  last  act.  Then, 
as  in  the  Southern,  names  only  too  well  known  will 
come  into  the  directory,  the  road  will  be  divided  up 
among  existing  roads  or  finished  for  the  profit  of 
these  Financial  Cannibals,  and  from  afar  the  stock- 
holders will  be  allowed  to  watch  the  Belshazzar 
feast.  But  "God  is  a  consuming  fire,"  and  I  can 
read  the  handwriting  on  the  wall.  The  third  act 
may  not  come  off  as  written  and  staged.  And  if 
this  book  could  have  the  circulation  it  would  have 
could  I  use  the  ordinary  channels,  channels  now 
closed  to  me  by  the  Money  Trust,  it  would  arouse 
enough  righteous  indignation  to  thwart  these  "re- 
spectable scoundrels,"  and  enable  us  to  finish  the 
road  by  popular  subscription. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE   SEEMING  TRIUMPH  OF  EVIL 

The  five  million  dollar  bond  sale  in  Paris  had 
been  blocked,  as  the  president  of  one  of  New  York's 
great  banks  predicted  it  would  be  to  one  of  our 
directors  a  few  months  before. 

As  our  contract  with  these  French  bankers  had 
provided  that  we  were  not  in  any  way  to  attempt 
to  sell  our  securities  in  Europe,  I  had  dropped 
numerous  negotiations  under  way,  confident  that 
our  faithful  London  friends  had  the  needed  money 
from  this  contract.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  clause 
in  the  contract  that  prevented  our  attempting  to 
sell  bonds  elsewhere,  I  would  have  been  able  to  close 
one  of  the  other  arrangements  under  way. 

But  we  were  all  positive  that  this  five  million  dol- 
lar sale  was  practically  closed  and  so  did  not  look 
elsewhere.  Often,  I  will  admit,  doubts  came  to  my 
mind,  as  I  knew  better  than  anyone  else  the  power 
for  evil  of  the  directors  of  this  bank,  whose  presi- 
dent had  predicted  we  would  not  get  the  money. 
The  nation  is  finding  out  now  some  of  the  evil  these 
men  can  do  who  are  or  were  directors  of  this  bank. 
But  at  last  our  good  friends  in  London,  who  had 
worked  so  faithfully  on  this  bond  matter,  cabled 

165 


166  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

that  it  was  useless  to  expect  to  close  it,  that  the 
pressure  was  so  great  from  New  York  that  nothing 
could  be  done,  and  only  receivership  awaited  our 
road.  Then,  a  few  days  later,  we  received  word 
that  a  committee  composed  of  members  of  our  Lon- 
don Finance  Committee,  and  one  of  our  former 
London  brokers,  would  sail  for  the  United  States 
to  attend  the  funeral.  They  arrived;  the  receiver- 
ship was  asked  for  at  their  request ;  it  was  granted, 
and  our  general  manager,  Mr.  Dickinson,  was 
made  one  of  the  receivers.  Then  came  the  daily 
wrangle  over  the  members  of  the  Reorganization 
Committee. 

I  insisted  that  it  was  a  crime  to  go  outside  of  our 
stock  and  bondholders  for  members  of  this  com- 
mittee. Why  on  earth,  with  such  a  great  list  of 
good  men,  should  we  get  outside  men,  who,  if  they 
accepted  the  position,  were  only  doing  it  for  the  fee, 
or  else  to  serve  interests  that  wished  to  make  the 
ruin  complete  ?  My  experience  with  the  committees 
on  the  Kansas  City  Southern  had  made  me  an  ex- 
pert in  such  matters.  My  idea  was  that  the  Com- 
mittee of  Bondholders  should  have  been  chosen,  as 
far  as  the  United  States  is  concerned,  from  the  fol- 
lowing gentlemen:  J.  T.  Odell,  H.  H.  Westing- 
house,  F.  W.  Roebling,  Charles  F.  Ayer,  John  W. 
Wallace,  H.  C.  Baldwin,  Theodore  Shonts  and 
myself.  There  should  be  only  one  committee  for 
Bond  and  Construction  Shares,  as  their  interests 
were  so  interwoven  that  it  was  impossible  for  two 


SEEMING  TRIUMPH  OF  EVIL  167 

committees  to  act.  Moreover  our  properties  should 
have  been  kept  in  the  owners'  hands,  and  not  given 
to  others  to  destroy,  if  they  should  wish  to. 

But  my  English  friends  were  new  at  this  kind  of 
work,  and  influenced  as  they  no  doubt  were,  thought 
otherwise,  and  as  they  were  reliable  men  it  was  no 
doubt  an  honest  conviction.  I  was  assured  time 
after  time  that  if  I  attempted  to  form  a  committee 
that  my  trust  company  would  be  ruined.  I  was  as- 
sured time  after  time  that  my  presentiments  that  this 
was  the  only  means  to  save  the  road  were  wrong 
and  that  there  was  money  in  sight  to  finish  the  road 
and  serve  all  interests.  After  consulting  with  friends 
in  whom  I  had  great  confidence,  men  like  Messrs. 
Wallace,  Estabrook  and  others,  who  advised  me  to 
acquiesce  to  my  English  friends'  request,  I  agreed, 
but  I  am  still  convinced  that  I  made  a  mistake,  still 
convinced  that  my  English  friends  made  a  still 
greater  mistake,  but  I  hope  to  see  it  proved  that  my 
fears  were  groundless.  Mr.  Shonts  is  the  only  man 
on  the  Bondholders'  Committee  in  the  United 
States  who  should  have  been  there,  when  we  were  so 
rich  in  good  names  among  our  own  people. 

Then  as  the  great  load  of  daily  worry  was  for  a 
time  taken  from  me,  my  thoughts  turned  to  the 
building  up  of  the  United  States  &  Mexican  Trust 
Company,  bringing  to  this  company  the  great 
future  that  I  was  positive  I  could  bring  to  it  in  a 
very  few  months  by  the  carrying  out  of  ideas  which 
I  had  had  in  mind  for  five  or  six  years.  Although 


168  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

the  earnings  had  been  over  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  per  year  net  for  the  last  two  years,  I  was 
positive  that  certain  plans  which  I  had  in  view 
would  increase  this,  and  I  still  feel  that  I  am  cor- 
rect in  this  idea.  As  I  had  been  assured  that 
the  Trust  Company  would  be  left  me,  I  withdrew 
from  any  idea  of  helping  the  Reorganization  Com- 
mittee. I  supposed  that  I  had  a  perfect  right  to 
commence  laying  out  a  great  future  for  the  Trust 
Company. 

I  needed  extra  help  in  the  company.  A  commit- 
tee of  our  directors  annually  went  over  our  assets, 
and  made  their  own  appraisals  of  the  value  of  the 
property.  This  year  on  that  committee  was  a 
banker  of  Washington,  one  of  our  directors,  who 
had  been  of  great  help  to  me  in  the  past.  When  he 
saw  the  possibilities  of  the  company,  he  suggested, 
to  our  surprise,  that  he  was  willing  to  resign  from 
the  bank  of  which  he  was  president,  and  come  with 
us  as  vice-president  to  help  me  carry  out  the  work 
of  reorganization.  We  were  delighted  at  this  ad- 
dition to  our  official  force,  and  elected  him  vice- 
president.  Shortly  after  his  election  he  was  in 
Washington,  where  he  was  called  before  the  officers 
of  one  of  the  banks  with  which  we  had  a  small  piece 
of  paper  with  my  name  as  one  of  the  endorsers. 
There  he  met  the  bank  examiner,  who  stated  to  the 
officers  of  the  bank  that  my  name  was  unfit  for  any 
bank  to  have  on  its  paper.  God  and  the  Money 
Trust  only  know  why. 


SEEMING  TRIUMPH  OF  EVIL  169 

Never  has  any  of  my  paper,  in  all  my  business 
life,  defaulted  or  gone  to  protest.  I  should  be  good 
at  this  bank  or  any  bank  for  the  small  amount 
of  the  note,  but  this  poor  examiner  must  obey 
indirectly  the  orders  of  the  financial  masters 
of  our  land,  and  this  note  must  be  taken  up. 
So  this  bank  examiner  in  Washington  had  such 
influence  that  our  Vice-President  now  assured 
me  that  I  must  resign  the  few  positions  I 
still  held  in  this  land  where  I  had  built  railroads 
equal  in  length  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco, 
where  twenty  thousand  people  were  at  work  in  com- 
panies I  had  formed,  with  a  thirty  million  dollar 
payroll.  I  must  now  give  up  my  last  position,  my 
last  means  of  livelihood.  The  Money  Trust,  through 
the  United  States  Comptroller,  was  taking  away 
from  me  my  last  position,  as  the  president  of  the 
National  Reserve  Bank  had  said  they  would  two 
years  before,  and  I  felt  like  poor  Dreyfus,  when  all 
of  his  regiment  were  called  out  to  see  him  stripped 
of  his  honors  and  even  the  military  buttons  cut  from 
his  clothes.  It  was  a  victorious  day  for  his  enemies. 

But  he  came  back,  and  perhaps  I  will.  Did 
Dreyfus  ever  fight  for  his  people  as  I  have  fought? 
Yet  his  fight  was  made  the  nation's  fight.  Perhaps 
mine  will  be. 

The  most  remarkable  thing  in  the  writing  of  this 
book  is  the  receipt  of  a  letter  this  morning,  after 
dictating  this  chapter,  from  a  friend  of  mine  in 


170  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

England,  a  man  of  high  standing  in  London,  who 
has  holdings  in  the  road : 

"I  do  hope  you  are  feeling  stronger  and  better 
again.  You  have  had  an  awful  time  with  this  ter- 
rible money  octopus  against  you.  It  would  have 
broken  up  any  ordinary  man  altogether  to  see  the 
great  work  that  you  initiated,  and  as  it  grew,  so 
grew  the  machinations  of  those  who  were  jealous 
of  your  success,  and  who  saw  the  enormous  profits 
that  must  accrue  to  the  K.  C.  M.  &  O.  when  com- 
pleted, and  they  are  still  working  tooth  and  nail  to 
get  control  or  else  divide  up  the  parts  already  built 
so  that  no  outside  group  shall  have  control  of  a 
transcontinental  line.  I  cannot  see  how  the  English 
group  can  allow  themselves  to  be  fooled,  how  they 
could  agree  to  a  committee  being  formed  of  people 
who  had  no  interest  whatever  in  conserving  the 
property  for  bond  and  shareholders  but  only  to 
break  it  up  and  make  profits  for  themselves  out  of 
the  wreckage.  But  I  can  see  plainly  that  they  are 
trying  to  push  out  the  only  remaining  props,  i.  e., 

Messrs. and ,  so  they  will  be  able  to 

ride  rough  shod  over  everything,  and  wipe  the  floor 
with  the  stockholders  and  bondholders  too,  if  they 
make  it  worth  the  Court's  while.  It  is  a  wicked 
state  of  things  to  think  that  all  the  money  found 
and  put  into  the  building  of  the  road  in  good  faith 
should  be  confiscated,  though  we  all  know  the  profits 
when  the  road  is  finished  would  soon  grow  into 
something  immense." 


CHAPTER  XXI 

To  THE  MONEY  TRUST 

I  can  assure  you,  gentlemen  of  the  Money  Trust, 
that  the  Nation  will  not  stand  much  longer  the  high- 
handed methods  you  employ.  It  is  only  a  step 
from  regulating  trusts  to  regulating  individuals. 
The  Tobacco  and  Standard  Oil  Trusts  have  reaped 
hundreds  of  millions  in  increased  values  of  shares 
through  the  government's  action  and  prosecution. 
This,  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  is  no  punishment  for 
the  crimes  committed.  Tons  of  gold  to  be  the 
result  of  a  verdict  of  "guilty"  seems  strange,  yet 
this  is  what  the  Standard  Oil  and  the  Tobacco 
Trusts  received,  as  I  mention  in  the  Chapter  on 
Remedies. 

I  hope  to  see  a  law  passed  by  Congress  this  next 
session  whereby  the  officers  and  directors  of  any 
company  convicted  of  violations  of  the  Sherman 
Law  are  not  eligible  for  five  years  to  serve  as  offi- 
cers or  directors  of  any  public  service  company  or 
national  bank.  What  your  punishment  may  be  for 
destroying  solvent  banks,  as  Untermeyer  says  you 
do,  I  cannot  say.  I  will  admit  that  the  influence 
of  your  money  with  newspapers,  in  the  Halls  of 
Congress,  and  in  State  Legislatures  is  almost  oni* 

171 


172  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

nipotent,  but  I  prefer  to  stand  in  open  fight.  And 
let  me  assure  you  that  there  is  no  gain  in  this  kind 
of  work;  it  spells  only  loss.  You  can  hit  me  and 
others  directly;  you  can,  as  Untermeyer  says,  in 
times  of  panic  destroy  solvent  banks,  but  in  the 
long  run  your  gain  will  be  loss. 

Congress  sooner  or  later  will  pass  all  the  laws 
Untermeyer  finds  necessary.  The  ineffective  sub- 
stitutes for  decisive  action  will  be  discarded.  There 
is  no  doubt  in  my  mind  that  railroad  rates  ought  to 
be  advanced.  It  is  just.  The  high  cost  of  living 
forces  increased  expenses  to  railroads,  and  wages 
are  year  after  year  advancing.  Yet  the  Interstate 
Commerce  Commission  and  State  Railroad  Boards 
are  year  by  year  reducing  railroad  rates.  It  is  the 
Nation's  way  of  striking  back. 

Look  at  the  loss  in  St.  Paul  stocks  in  the  last  few 
years;  look  at  the  millions  lost  in  Chicago  &  Alton 
bonds  and  shares,  in  Chicago  &  Great  Western 
bonds  and  shares. 

You  who  made  the  Kansas  City  Southern  Rail- 
road stagger  under  a  debt  it  never  would  have  had 
but  for  your  acts ;  you  who  caused  me  and  the  offi- 
cers of  the  Orient  Road  to  do  our  work  of  financing 
over  and  over;  made  it  cost,  to  date,  millions  it 
never  would  have  cost  had  we  been  left  unmolested 
as  we  should  have  been;  can  you  wonder  at  the 
sequel?  All  of  this  injustice  is  felt  by  the  people, 
and  they  have  retaliated  by  opposing  increased  rail- 
road rates.  Is  it  strange?  Can  you  expect  the 


TO  THE  MONEY  TRUST  173 

people  of  Colorado  to  like  Wall  Street  when  they 
see  how  Moffat  was  defeated  in  his  endeavors.  As 
Mr.  Moffat  said  to  a  friend  of  mine,  "It  breaks  my 
heart  to  be  defeated  year  after  year  in  this  great 
fight." 

The  people  of  Colorado  know  this.  Can  you 
expect  them  to  help  you  in  your  investment  and 
rejoice  in  your  prosperity?  The  road  of  injustice 
is  not  the  highway  to  prosperity.  You  are  now  in- 
directly suffering  from  these  business  methods. 

The  people  of  Texas  saw  me  build  a  great  road 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  state.  They  saw  me  de- 
velop a  great  city  and  build  a  great  harbor.  Then 
they  saw  a  Wall  Street  banker  fight  me  day  and 
night ;  they  saw  my  road  in  receivership.  They  knew 
that  Gates,  Harriman  and  Thalmann,  and  one  of 
the  partners  of  the  Kuhn-Loeb  firm  were  in  the  di- 
rectory of  the  road  when  the  Guardian  Trust  Com- 
pany was  put  in  receivership.  All  this  they  knew. 
Then  they  saw  me  start  again  with  no  word  of  pro- 
test, just  a  manly  fight  to  start  life  over.  Again 
I  started  a  great  road  in  the  western  part  of  Texas. 
They  saw  new  towns  spring  up  as  if  by  magic ;  they 
saw  Sweetwater  double  and  San  Angelo  treble  in 
population;  they  saw  land  values  jump  millions  as 
our  road  progressed;  they  heard  how  day  by  day 
our  work  was  made  harder  and  harder  by  your 
opposition ;  they  saw  you  defeat  us  in  the  five  million 
bond  sale  in  France,  and  then  they  saw  my  second 
road  go  into  receivership.  No  wonder  the  governor 


174  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

of  Texas  said,  "I  do  not  see  how  Stilwell  can  win 
with  such  opposition." 

These  people  of  Texas  are  big  men,  big-hearted 
men,  men  with  great  ideas  of  the  world — the  natural 
result  of  life  spent  on  vast,  far-sweeping  plains.  I 
am  their  friend.  They  have  seen  you  hurt  me. 
They  resent  it,  and  do  not  doubt  that  they  show 
their  resentment  more  or  less  in  the  treatment  ac- 
corded the  railroads  you  own  in  that  state.  Do  you 
not  think  that  had  you  not  oppressed  and  slandered 
their  friend  and  backer  they  would  have  felt  kind- 
lier toward  you  and  yours? 

You  have  been  money  and  power  mad.  Stop  it 
— for  your  sake,  the  Nation's  sake,  your  children's 
sake,  or  the  day  may  come  when  you  will  have  to 
flee  the  Nation  from  the  wrath  of  its  people  and 
your  seeming  profit  will  melt  as  snow  before  the 
sun. 

Any  profit  from  injustice  is  only  seeming  profit; 
it  cannot  be  lasting  or  bring  any  satisfaction. 

It  is  a  great  pleasure  for  me  to  say  that  in  Wall 
Street  are  great  banking  houses  that  would  not 
resort  to  such  methods;  the  majority  of  members 
of  the  Exchange  deplore  the  tactics  of  the  few,  tac- 
tics which  are  bound  to  lead  to  business  destruc- 
tion. The  members  of  the  house  of  Blair  and  Com- 
pany have  always  had  only  kindly  words  when 
asked  regarding  me  and  my  work,  and  I  take  this 
occasion  to  thank  the  partners  one  and  all  and 
assure  them  that  not  only  my  life,  but  the  financial 


TO  THE  MONEY  TRUST  175 

condition  of  the  Nation,  would  be  much  different 
if  all  banking  houses  were  actuated  by  the  same 
high  ideals. 

In  the  Reorganization  Committee  of  the  Kansas 
City  Southern,  both  Mr.  Bull  and  Mr.  Welch  op- 
posed the  treatment  accorded  me,  and  told  the  rest 
of  the  members  it  was  shameful  to  have  accepted 
my  help  and  then  to  break  all  promises  made  to 
me  and  the  Guardian  Trust  Company  stockhold- 
ers and  attempt  to  break  me,  day  by  day,  as  a 
reward  for  my  work  in  getting  the  bonds  and 
shares  deposited  which  made  the  reorganization  plan 
effective,  where,  without  my  help,  it  would  have 
been  a  failure. 

In  all  this  destructive  work,  these  lies  by  tongue 
and  pen,  not  once  have  I  been  able  to  ascribe 
any  of  this  work  to  the  house  of  J.  P.  Morgan.  I 
believe  Mr.  Morgan  and  all  his  partners,  and  his 
former  partner,  Mr.  Perkins,  are  above  this  kind 
of  work.  Also  the  fact  that  the  Orient  Road  had 
a  small  credit  with  a  sub-company  of  the  United 
States  Steel  Corporation  confirms  me  in  this.  The 
fact  that  Mr.  Shonts  was  a  director  in  the  Orient 
Railroad  is  additional  evidence.  Mr.  Stotesbury, 
one  of  the  partners  of  J.  P.  Morgan,  was  a  member 
of  the  first  Reorganization  Committee  of  the  South- 
ern, and  when  I  told  him  of  Thalmann's  offer  to 
me  he  at  once  resigned.  So  in  these  days  of  oppres- 
sion that  I  have  passed  through  it  is  a  pleasure  to 
feel  that  the  Nation  has  one  house  above  such  work. 


176  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

The  house  of  Morgan  may,  for  all  I  know,  be  the 
head  of  the  Money  Trust,  but  never  by  anything 
that  has  been  said  or  done  could  I  infer  that  such  is 
the  case. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE  WHIRLWIND  OF  DOLLARS 

If  you  have  ever  been  out  on  Western  plains,  you 
have  seen  small  whirlwinds  of  sand  join  and  move 
over  the  plains,  reaching  several  hundred  feet  from 
the  ground.  As  they  whirl  they  move  from  ten  to 
twenty  miles  an  hour.  All  at  once  they  break,  and 
a  small  pile  of  sand  is  left  where  they  have  given 
up  existence. 

What  we  are  suffering  from  is  these  whirlwinds 
that  have  moved  over  our  land  for  the  last  ten  or 
twenty  years,  and  in  each  city  have  sucked  out  of 
from  one  to  a  dozen  institutions  whirlwinds  of  dol- 
lars which  have  moved  on  to  the  Money  Trust  and 
dropped  to  their  feet  golden  and  silver  treasures, 
leaving  the  institutions  they  have  sucked  the  life 
out  of,  impoverished  and  with  an  almost  hopeless 
task  of  earning  enough  to  repair  the  damage  done 
by  the  ravenous  whirlwind. 

Millions  of  tribute  money  from  all  the  great  cities 
of  the  land  have  gone  on  to  the  Money  Trust  pocket 
and  no  one  dares  say  a  word.  Take  Harriman 
fifteen  years  ago ;  I  doubt  if  he  had  ten  million  dol- 
lars. He  died,  we  will  say,  worth  one  hundred  and 
fifty  million.  This  is  ten  millions  a  year  made  for 

177 


178  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

fifteen  years.  In  the  last  eight  years  of  his  life  it 
is  said  he  made  one  hundred  million.  This  is,  we 
will  say,  one  million  per  month,  or  thirty-three 
thousand  dollars  per  day,  he  sucked  out  of  the 
United  States.  Say  that  the  working  hours  of  a 
day  are  eight;  this  made  his  profits  four  thousand, 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  per  hour  for 
each  working  hour  for  eight  years.  Think  of  it! 
Think  of  the  thousands  of  bright  men  working  a 
year  for  less  than  he  made  per  hour.  Say  that  there 
are  sixteen  silver  dollars  in  a  pound.  Every  fifteen 
minutes  of  these  eight  hours  a  man  would  have  to 
come  to  his  office  and  lay  down  a  bag  of  silver 
weighing  over  sixty-four  pounds,  to  represent  his 
profits.  That  was  only  his  share  of  these  whirl- 
winds. There  were  dozens  of  others  who  had  the 
silver  showers  laid  at  their  feet  also,  and  probably 
at  least  seven-tenths  of  these  showers  came  from  in- 
justice and  greed.  And  when  a  good  man  like  Mr. 
Fish  stood  in  the  way,  he  was  removed  quickly; 
nothing  must  block  these  whirlwinds  on  their  jour- 
ney to  the  feet  of  the  Money  Trust. 

(After  I  wrote  this,  I  read  it  to  a  friend  of  mine, 
and  was  asked  if  it  was  right  to  refer  to  a  dead  man. 
My  answer  was,  "The  world  still  speaks  of  Captain 
Kidd.") 

There  can  be  no  true  financial  prosperity  again 
until  the  Money  Trust  is  dissolved.  There  may  be, 
as  there  has  been,  manufactured  prosperity  so  that 
certain  groups  can  unload  their  stocks  or  bonds, 


WHIRLWIND   OF  DOLLARS  179 

but  wix,h  the  basis  of  finance  rotten  there  is  no  hope 
until  that  rottenness  is  exposed,  stopped,  and  laws 
enacted  that  will  make  its  return  impossible. 

There  are  hundreds  of  men  in  the  Stock  Ex- 
change and  on  Wall  Street  who  in  their  hearts  say 
Amen  to  every  word  of  this.  Lift  this  ban  of  inter- 
locking directors,  give  a  chance  to  high-minded  men 
who  will  not  stoop  to  the  unprincipled  methods  now 
being  used  by  these  " financial  scoundrels"  and  you 
will  see  a  new  alignment  of  financial  houses. 
There  are  dozens  of  them  who  would  have  resented 
these  tactics  long  ago  had  they  dared. 

Take  one  of  the  men  I  have  in  mind;  while  pro- 
fessing piety  he  breaks  any  of  the  ten  command- 
ments he  wishes,  has  his  millions  and  his  mistresses. 
Now  what  is  there  in  this  man  to  fear?  Do  you 
fear  the  greatness  of  his  sins,  or  his  money  bags? 
Neither  of  them  have  any  power  in  the  presence  of 
truth.  He  has  been  so  used  to  seeing  people  fear 
and  cringe  before  him  that  he  has  come  to  think  it 
his  proper  due.  But  is  it?  Just  a  few  months  of 
honest  endeavor  on  the  part  of  Congress  and  the 
Senate,  and  this  seeming  power  would  soon  begin 
to  dwindle. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE  REMEDY 

Must  the  nation  allow  these  destructive  condi- 
tions to  exist  such  as  have  been  forced  upon  the 
Orient  Railroad  by  a  few  rich  men?  Shall  these 
financial  high-binders  steal  from  stockholders  any 
enterprise  which  they  may  covet,  and  as  Unter- 
meyer  says,  "In  a  panic  destroy  a  number  of 
solvent  banks"?  This  must  be  stopped  and  I 
am  sure  it  can  be.  If  not,  Socialism  will  be  ram- 
pant, and  we  will  see  even  worse  conditions  in  our 
beloved  country  than  existed  in  France  during  the 
Commune,  and  the  streets  will  ring  here  as  they  did 
there  with  the  cry:  Liberty,  Equality  and  Justice. 
There  is  no  escaping  it.  The  law  of  retribution  set 
in  motion  by  these  men  so  mesmerized  by  their 
wealth  and  the  power  it  has  given  them,  will  force 
the  people  to  adopt  such  severe  methods  that  the 
pen  of  the  historian  will  hate  to  record  them.  One 
of  America's  greatest  men,  an  ex-railroad  presi- 
dent, a  man  with  a  name  as  clean  as  it  is  great, 
said  to  me  only  a  few  weeks  ago:  "Stilwell,  I  am 
selling  my  securities,  have  resigned  from  nearly  all 
the  companies  I  am  a  director  in,  preparing  for  the 
day  when  this  nation  will  arise  and  say  to  these 
money-mad  men,  'Thou  shalt  not  steal.' ' 

180 


THE  REMEDY  181 

That  day  I  believe  is  near  at  hand  and  it  is  the 
duty  of  every  American  citizen  to  do  all  in  his 
power  to  hasten  it  by  insisting  upon  honest  methods 
in  business  dealings,  and  that  the  dollar  of  the  rich 
shall  have  no  more  power  than  the  dollar  of  the 
poor. 

Laws  can  be  passed  that  will  eliminate  from  the 
minds  of  such  men  as  Havemeyer  any  desire  to 
gain  riches  by  false  scales ;  the  fear  of  the  peniten- 
tiary for  five  or  ten  years  would  cure  the  whole 
brood  of  their  grabitis.  But  how  can  we  expect 
the  Standard  Oil  stockholders  or  directors  to  object 
to  a  verdict  of  guilt  when  such  a  verdict  increases 
the  market  value  of  their  shares  four  hundred  mil- 
lion dollars  ?  But  such  is  the  case.  Nothing  would 
please  them  better  than  to  have  the  nation  repeat 
this  every  year.  But  if  two  or  three  of  these  direct- 
ors had  been  sent  to  prison  for  five  or  ten  years  and 
branded  as  criminals,  the  effect  would  have  been 
highly  beneficial  to  the  business  life  of  the  nation. 

What  but  Graft  is  the  destruction  of  a  great 
company  like  the  Orient  Railroad  so  that  it  may 
fall  into  the  hands  of  a  certain  group  of  rich  men? 
If  it  is  Graft  and  nothing  can  be  done  about  it  be- 
cause the  offenders  are  rich  men,  why  should  we  get 
so  excited  over  this  recent  case  of  Graft  in  New 
York  City,  which  began  with  Becker  and  the  end 
is  not  yet?  And  why  attempt  to  stop  men  like  the 
McNamaras?  They  had  as  much  right  to  destroy 
bridges  and  buildings  as  Harriman,  Gates  and 


182  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

Thalmann  had  to  destroy  the  Guardian  Trust  Com- 
pany. Why  are  not  these  rich  offenders  brought 
to  justice?  There  is  only  one  answer:  they  find 
men  in  high  government  positions  for  sale,  and  they 
buy  enough  of  them  to  prevent  any  law  being 
passed  that  will  interfere  with  their  diabolical 
financial  schemes. 

The  following  copied  from  the  Chicago  Ameri- 
can of  August  21,  1912,  illustrates  what  I  say,  and 
how  many  thousand  more  cases  are  there  of  which 
we  never  hear: 

"THE  ARCHBOLD  LETTER 

"Following  is  the  'My  Dear  Senator'  letter  to 
Senator  Penrose,  published  in  Hearst's  Magazine, 
on  which  impeachment  proceedings  are  to  be  based : 
"  'Personal.     October  13,  1904. 
"  'My  Dear  Senator: 

'  'In  fulfillment  of  our  understanding,  it  gives 
me  pleasure  to  hand  you  herewith  certificate  of  de- 
posit to  your  favor  for  $25,000  and  with  good 
wishes,  I  am,  yours  truly, 

"  'JOHN  D.  ARCHBOLD. 

"  'To  Hon.  Boies  Penrose,  1331  Spruce  Street, 
"  'Philadelphia,  Pa.' 

"FLINN'S  NEW  CHARGES 

"The  $25,000  was  paid  to  Penrose  after  he,  as  a 
member  of  the  Industrial  Commission,  had  taken 
orders  from  Jno.  D.  Archbold  of  Standard  Oil  on 


THE  REMEDY  183 

the  course  of  that  commission  in  investigating  the 
monopoly.  Penrose  was  paid  this  $25,000  after  the 
report  of  the  Industrial  Commission  had  been  sub- 
mitted to  John  D.  Archbold  and  approved  by  him, 
previous  to  being  made  public." 

They  also  find  judges  like  ex- Judge  Phillips  of 
Kansas  City,  who  will  accept  favors  until  he  is 
practically  owned  by  them,  and  thus  have  their 
orders  carried  out,  and  men  like  myself  assassinated 
in  the  business  world.  I  for  one  will  not  remain  in 
this  country  and  submit  to  this  treatment  longer. 
Having  built  nearly  3,000  miles  of  railroad,  equal 
to  the  distance  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco, 
and  furnished  employment  to  tie  cutters  alone  of 
one  million,  five  hundred  thousand  days'  labor, 
after  all  these  years  of  faithful  work  for  my  coun- 
try I  naturally  love  it,  and  should  I  not  occupy  as 
secure  and  honored  a  position  here  as  these  men 
whom  Untermeyer  says  "In  a  panic  .  .  .  de- 
stroyed a  number  of  solvent  banks"?  I  think  I 
should.  The  remedy  is:  make  conspiracy  to  ruin 
business  enterprises  by  dollars  as  unsafe  as  to  ruin 
by  dynamite.  The  remedy  is :  make  the  rich  suffer 
for  misdeeds  as  well  as  the  poor.  The  remedy  is: 
for  the  government  to  unearth  the  conspiracy  to 
ruin  the  Orient  Railroad  and  its  stockholders,  with 
the  same  determination  and  skill  it  used  in  the 
McNamara  case.  Then  this  kind  of  destructive 


184  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

work  will  stop  and  this  will  indeed  to  be  the  Land 
of  the  Free. 

LAWS  AND  AMENDMENTS  THAT  WOULD  HELP 

1st.  Amend  the  banking  laws  so  that  the  reserve 
of  the  National  Banks  is  kept  in  cash  in  the  bank. 
This  will  prevent  the  concentration  in  large  cities 
of  money  which  is  at  once  withdrawn  in  case  of  any 
financial  unrest,  producing  stringency  and  panic. 
Were  this  done  panics  would  be  fewer  and  specula- 
tion, but  not  investment,  would  be  prevented. 

2nd.  Let  the  Government  Bonds  be  convertible 
in  multiples  of  $10,000  into  currency  by  anyone, 
but  during  such  conversion  let  the  Government  re- 
tain the  interest  on  the  bonds.  This  would  help 
prevent  stringency,  and  all  men  of  means  would 
invest  in  these  bonds,  knowing  they  could  convert 
them  into  cash  when  needed  and  reconvert  them 
into  bonds  when  the  need  of  cash  had  passed  by. 
This  would  prevent  the  owners  of  Government 
Bonds  being  forced  to  pay  twelve  per  cent  for  cur- 
rency during  panics  and  being  unable  to  borrow 
on  their  bonds,  as  they  were  in  many  instances  dur- 
ing the  last  panic.  The  Government  of  this  coun- 
try is  by  the  people  and  for  the  people,  and  there 
is  no  reason  why  the  individual's  Government 
Bonds  should  not  be  exchangeable  for  currency  the 
same  as  banks'  Government  Bonds.  This  would 
enable  insurance  companies  in  times  of  panic  or 
when  paying  large  fire  losses  to  turn  their  Govern- 


THE  REMEDY  185 

ment  Bonds  into  currency  and  not  be  forced  to  sell 
their  railroad  bonds  and  other  securities  in  a  bad 
market.  It  would  bring  great  stability  to  the  mar- 
ket and  help  prevent  stringency  in  crop-moving 
periods  and  during  panics. 

3rd.  The  railroads  of  our  land  are  the  greatest 
tools  the  nation  has.  The  more  prosperous  they  are, 
the  more  just  the  rates,  the  more  prosperous  the 
nation.  There  is  no  way  for  the  nation  to  prosper 
if  the  railroads  do  not.  At  least  one  person  in  eight 
of  our  population  is  dependent  on  railroads  for  his 
living.  Good  wages  can  only  come  to  railroad  men 
and  railroad  industries  when  railroads  are  prosper- 
ous. All  laws  to  make  railroad  investments  stable 
should  be  enacted  for  the  good  of  all.  All  misdeeds 
of  officers  should  be  severely  punished  by  the  Gov- 
ernment. Such  acts  bring  just  as  much  discredit 
on  railroad  investments  as  radical  legislation  does. 
The  great  purchase  of  stock  by  the  Union  Pacific 
under  the  Harriman  reign  has  caused  much  com- 
ment. This  act  offered  chances  to  make  millions  at 
the  expense  of  the  stockholders.  Now,  the  ques- 
tion is,  "Was  it  done?"  Did  certain  men  have  this 
matter  in  mind  for  months?  Did  they  accumulate 
these  stocks  in  some  third  party's  hands  at  lower 
prices  than  they  sold  them  to  the  railroad,  and  make 
the  difference  for  private  gain  ?  In  July,  this  year, 
the  statute  of  limitations  has  run  on  this  act.  But 
suppose  a  holder  of  $1,000  had  wished  to  bring  these 
men  to  court  to  find  out  if  such  were  the  case.  The 


186  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

only  result  would  be  years  of  litigation  at  his  ex- 
pense. If  he  proved  that  they  had  thus  looted  the 
company  the  money  would  be  returned,  not  to  him, 
but  to  the  treasury  of  the  road,  at  his  expense. 

A  law  ought  to  be  passed  that  on  the  request  of 
ten  per  cent  of  the  stockholders  of  any  other  rail- 
road the  Government  at  its  own  expense  would 
probe  the  matter  and  pay  the  expenses  of  such  a 
suit.  Were  there  such  a  law  in  effect  these  pur- 
chases of  stock  might  never  have  taken  place.  Such 
purchases,  if  legal,  ought  to  be  passed  on  by  the 
Interstate  Commerce  Commission  or  the  Commerce 
Court  before  made,  and  the  price  to  be  paid  ap- 
proved by  them.  This  would  bring  great  stability 
to  railroad  investments. 

4th.  One  of  the  greatest  financial  evils  consists 
in  forcing  railroads  into  receivership  for  the  enor- 
mous profits  that  come  to  and  through  the  reorgan- 
ization of  these  properties.  This  all  ought  to  be  in 
the  hands  of  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission. 
If  a  railroad  must  go  through  reorganization  every 
effort  should  be  made  to  have  it  done  with  the  sole 
purpose  of  protecting  all  investors.  The  security 
holders  ought  to  advise  the  Interstate  Commerce 
Commission  as  to  the  reorganization  committee  to 
be  appointed  by  them,  if  acceptable  to  the  Court. 
Numerous  committees,  as  it  is  now  witnessed  in  the 
Wabash  case,  would  be  prevented.  The  fees  of  the 
committees  and  all  expenses  ought  to  be  approved 
by  the  Court.  The  assessment  on  the  stock,  if  any, 


THE  REMEDY  187 

the  scaling,  if  any,  of  the  debt,  all  ought  to  be  ap- 
proved by  the  Court.  This  would  prevent  the  great 
graft  which  sometimes  occurs  in  a  receivership,  and 
would  prevent  the  capitalizing  of  the  deficits  of 
railroads,  as  is  sometimes  done. 

5th.  Make  the  office  of  Comptroller  equal  in  pay 
to  that  of  a  Cabinet  officer,  the  appointment  for  life 
unless  removed  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  Congress. 
Then  future  Comptrollers  would  not  be  forced  to 
be  the  servant  of  the  Money  Trust  to  assure  their 
future  when  their  term  of  office  has  expired.  Comp- 
trollers know  that  if  while  in  office  they  displease, 
in  any  way,  the  leading  bankers,  it  is  useless  for 
them  ever  to  expect  again  to  be  the  head  of  any 
prominent  financial  institution  in  the  United  States. 

6th.  Pass  a  law  whereby  any  officer  or  director 
of  any  company  convicted  of  violation  of  the  Sher- 
man Law  is  not  eligible  for  five  years  to  serve  as 
officer  or  director  of  any  bank,  trust  company  or 
any  public  service  corporation. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

THE  CONCLUSIONS 

The  traits  we  live  come  to  us  as  an  inheritance. 
They  started  to  shape  themselves  before  the  Stone 
Age,  in  the  dawn  of  the  world,  and  gathered  or 
lost  momentum  as  they  were  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation.  As  we  receive  them, 
they  become  our  record  or  roll  of  life,  which  we 
reproduce  in  our  daily  acts,  like  the  needle  of  the 
phonograph  gliding  over  its  record.  My  ancestors 
handed  down  to  me  a  strange  mixture  of  force  and 
gentleness.  From  Hamlin  Stilwell  and  his  father, 
who  was  a  leader  in  the  Revolution,  came  my  pro- 
gressive and  constructive  traits. 

Hamlin  Stilwell,  like  myself,  was  a  builder.  He 
was  one  of  the  leading  forces  in  the  building  of 
the  Erie  Canal,  was  one  of  the  men  appointed  by 
the  governor  of  New  York  State  to  mix  the  waters 
of  Lake  Erie  with  the  Hudson  River  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  canal.  He  was  the  one  appointed  by 
the  governor  to  escort  Lafayette  across  New  York 
State  on  his  second  visit  to  the  United  States.  He 
was  connected  with  the  building  of  the  New  York 
Central  Railroad  and  the  Western  Union  Tele- 
graph Company.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of 
the  Rochester  Savings  Bank  and  the  Rochester  Gas 

188 


THE  CONCLUSIONS  189 

Company,  and  was  one  of  the  trustees  who  designed 
and  laid  out  the  beautiful  Mt.  Hope  cemetery.  He 
retired  from  business  at  the  age  of  thirty-five  for 
the  purpose  of  promoting  a  Western  House  of 
Refuge  for  redeeming  and  saving  young  men  who 
had  up  to  that  time  been  placed  in  penitentiaries. 
So  from  the  paternal  side  came  my  love  to  build 
and  construct.  From  that  trait  in  my  grandfather 
that  wished  to  save  and  help  young  men,  came  my 
love  to  promote  companies  which  would  give  em- 
ployment to  others. 

From  my  mother's  side  and  its  long  line  of 
ministers  and  missionaries,  among  whom  were  my 
uncle  Joseph  Pierson,  who  was  one  of  the  leading 
Episcopal  ministers  of  New  York  City,  and  my 
uncle  Arthur  Tappan  Pierson,  the  successor  of 
Spurgeon  in  London,  came  my  love  of  non- 
combative  and  pacific  methods  and  the  firm  con- 
viction that  right  will  triumph,  even  though  at  the 
time  it  may  seem  to  be  on  the  gallows  or  the  cross. 
I  yet  believe  that  gentleness  will  some  day  be  a 
recognized  business  trait,  and  that  to  be  a  success- 
ful business  man  one  need  not  have  the  instincts 
of  a  wolf  or  the  ferocious  and  devouring  traits  of 
a  lion. 

With  these  inherited  traits  Kountz  did  not  awe 
me  with  his  hundred  thousand  dollar  bribe,  nor 
scare  me  by  his  ruin  threat.  Thalmann's  offer 
looked  like  thirty  cents.  Betray  my  stockholders — 
men  who  had  trusted  me!  It  never  entered  my 


190  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

mind,  not  even  for  the  sake  of  retaining  the  rail- 
road I  had  built.  Gates'  offer  that  night  in  the 
Rookery  Building  had  nothing  alluring  in  it,  and 
the  fifteen  years  of  suffering  is  nothing  to  the 
remorse  I  would  have  felt  had  I  accepted  any  one 
of  these  offers.  My  ancestors  left  in  my  system  an 
abhorrence  for  such  methods. 

What  I  could  have  done  for  Kansas  City  and  for 
the  Golden  West  had  I  been  let  alone  to  develop 
the  constructive  ideas  which  I  have  always  had,  I 
cannot  tell,  but  as  I  said  before,  I  do  know  that 
today  the  Guardian  Trust  Company  would  be  one 
of  the  greatest  financial  companies  of  the  West 
and  that  my  stock  holdings  in  it  would  be  worth 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars.  Port  Arthur 
would  be  two  or  three  times  larger  than  now,  as  I 
had  great  plans  that  would  have  made  it  one  of 
the  greatest  cities  of  the  South;  plans  which  I 
regret  not  being  able  to  carry  out.  The  people 
who  owned  the  townsite  would  have  reaped  great 
reward  and  the  Kansas  City  Southern's  stock- 
holders would  have  been  greatly  benefited  had  I 
been  left  at  the  head  of  the  road. 

I  can  assure  my  readers  that  it  is  hard  work  to 
keep  from  making  mistakes  when  one  is  tripped, 
chased,  slandered  and  followed  by  detectives,  the 
knowledge  of  which  so  harasses  him  that  only  one- 
half  of  his  day  can  be  spent  in  peacefully  thinking 
out  plans  and  developing  the  work  that  he  has  in 
hand.  Nor  does  it  help  to  know  that  one  is  black- 


THE  CONCLUSIONS  191 

listed  among  the  bankers,  that  the  greatest  aggre- 
gation of  wealth  that  the  world  has  ever  known  has 
marked  him  for  ruin,  of  the  reason  for  which  he  has 
not  the  slightest  idea. 

James  J.  Hill,  like  myself,  was  a  great  pioneer, 
and  developed  to  the  fullest  extent  his  constructive 
ideas ;  but  for  some  reasons  which  I  do  not  know  he 
made  peace  with  the  Money  Trust  and  has  rounded 
out  his  life  at  the  head  of  his  great  creations.  I  am 
positive  that  Kansas  City  today  would  have  from 
twenty-five  thousand  to  fifty  thousand  more  people 
could  I  have  lived  in  peace  and  worked  for  its  up- 
building, in  place  of  taking  one-half  of  my  time 
protecting  my  great  enterprises  from  Wall  Street 
and  United  States  judges. 

Naturally,  after  these  years  of  chaos,  all  of  my 
instincts  long  for  rest;  but  how  can  any  man  give 
up  such  an  unjust  fight,  and  surrender  when  he 
has  right  on  his  side?  I  understand  fully  that  this 
is  what  the  Money  Trust  expects  one  whom  they 
wish  to  destroy  to  do — simply  surrender,  give  up 
and  be  quiet.  But  my  great  belief  in  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  right  leads  me  to  hope  that  the  day  is 
not  far  distant  when  some  of  my  creations,  the 
children  of  my  mind,  may  come  back  to  me.  I 
still  dream  of  the  final  verdict  in  the  Guardian 
Trust  Company's  case  after  eleven  years  of  judicial 
crime.  I  still  dream  of  hearing  the  people  compos- 
ing the  Money  Trust  admit  that  they  have  been 
wrong  in  not  letting  me  alone;  and  I  can  assure 


192  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

these  people  that  another  man  treated  as  I  have 
been  might  long  ago  have  resorted  to  harsh  meth- 
ods ;  but  I  am  a  man  of  peace ;  I  desire  no  revenge ; 
it  is  not  in  my  system.  But  I  do  from  now  on 
demand  freedom. 

There  are  only  two  paths  I  can  see  open  to  me. 
One  is  that  I  shall,  through  some  combination  of 
circumstances,  deliver  my  message  of  progress  over 
the  finished  Orient  Road,  with  Mr.  Dickinson  and 
myself  still  guiding  its  destinies.  That  such  a  com- 
bination of  events  should  occur  does  not  now  seem 
possible,  but  if  it  is  destiny  for  me  to  be  that  mes- 
senger, all  combinations  on  earth  cannot  prevent 
it,  and  all  opposition  would  be  but  stepping  stones 
to  the  final  goal. 

If  my  business  life  is  now  ended,  and  notwith- 
standing the  fact  that  my  home  is  now  in  New 
York,  where  my  ancestors  worked  unmolested  for 
the  upbuilding  of  that  state,  I  shall  always  think  of 
you,  my  dear  Kansas  City,  and  still  watch  you  from 
afar.  You  will  be  a  great  city,  far  greater  than 
you  now  dream  of.  The  wealth  of  the  wonderful 
Missouri  Valley  will  flow  through  your  gates,  and 
pay  tribute  to  your  banks,  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers. Often  in  the  October  of  life,  with  its 
struggles  nearly  over,  I  shall  think  of  the  October 
days  of  harvest  of  my  dearly  loved  West.  I  shall 
hope  that  your  barns  are  filled  to  overflowing  with 
the  grains  of  the  field,  that  on  the  pastures  of  your 
blessed  land  the  herds  are  numerous,  and  vour 


THE  CONCLUSIONS  193 

future  bright.  You  are  a  fine  people,  you  of  the 
boundless  West.  What  a  lesson  Wichita  gave  of 
sterling  honsety  when  they  revoted  our  subsidy 
bonds  which  we  had  forfeited  by  not  finishing  our 
road  on  the  agreed  date,  and  which  was  revoted 
with  a  larger  majority  after  you  had  received  the 
road  finished,  than  was  given  before.  When  peo- 
ple are  honest  there  is  nothing  to  fear,  and  I  did 
not  fear  but  that  this  would  be  the  result,  for  I 
knew  the  people  of  Wichita. 

If  this  is  business  exile,  I  shall  carry  with  me 
the  remembrances  of  great  acts  of  unselfishness  of 
many  dear  friends — like  those  of  Mr.  Hurdle,  who 
came  here  from  London  at  any  time  of  need,  the 
remarks  of  Mr.  R.  A.  Long  of  Kansas  City  that  he 
never  would  have  moved  to  Kansas  City  nor  erected 
the  R.  A.  Long  Building  had  it  not  been  for  my 
constructive  work,  and  the  remark  of  Mr.  Munger 
that  my  work  for  Kansas  City  added  one  more 
story  to  their  building. 

These  remarks,  which  they  have  probably  for- 
gotten, are  to  me  living  messages  of  good  cheer, 
and  I  will  ever  prize  them  as  I  gaze  down  the 
crowded  vistas  of  the  past. 

As  the  time  for  nomination  for  president  drew 
near,  I  felt  that  it  was  the  opportunity  of  years  to 
get  one  of  the  candidates  and  one  of  the  parties  to 
come  out  for  freedom  of  action,  freedom  from  the 
Money  Trust,  and  to  champion  the  passing  of  laws 
which  would  enable  the  Money  Trust  to  be  probed 


194  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

to  the  bottom,  and  force  its  questionable  methods 
to  be  exposed  to  the  light  of  day.  I  felt  that  one 
of  the  parties  should  state  in  its  platform  that  such 
was  its  intention  and  that  there  should  be  no  dif- 
ference between  dollars  and  dynamite  if  they  were 
used  for  destructive  purposes,  but  that  the  men 
who  used  capital  to  destroy  business  enterprises 
were  as  guilty  as  the  members  of  labor  organiza- 
tions who  used  dynamite,  and  should  be  punished 
as  criminals. 

With  this  idea  in  mind  I  wrote  to  President  Taft 
and  requested  an  interview,  but  my  letter  was 
referred  to  his  campaign  manager.  Then,  later, 
when  a  number  of  delegates  to  the  Republican 
Convention  in  Chicago  suggested  the  idea  of  nomi- 
nating me  for  Vice-President  on  the  Republican 
ticket,  I  sent  a  representative  there  to  state  that 
if  any  such  action  was  taken  it  must  be  stated  in 
the  platform  that  the  Money  Trust  was  to  be  / 
probed  to  the  bottom;  but  my  name  was  not 
offered,  as  Mr.  Barnes  insisted  on  Sherman  as 
Vice-President.  Now  as  I  read  daily  from  the 
investigation  in  Washington  of  the  great  contri- 
butions to  the  Republican  party  in  times  past  by 
the  moneyed  interests  of  Wall  Street,  I  can  readily 
understand  why  the  great  trusts  have  developed 
and  the  great  injustice  of  the  Money  Trust  has 
been  allowed  to  go  on  from  day  to  day  without  the 
punishment  of  those  guilty  of  their  destructive 
work.  The  Republican  party  is  simply  remember- 


THE  CONCLUSIONS  195 

ing  its  creator,  and  it  is  quite  right  in  doing  so  if 
its  principal  claim  to  victory  in  the  past  has  been 
the  great  contributions  of  the  Money  Power  in 
Wall  Street.  It  certainly  has  done  its  duty  in 
delivering  the  goods. 

When  I  found  that  Ex- President  Roosevelt  was 
to  run  on  a  third  ticket,  I  wrote  to  him  and  told 
him  I  felt  sure  I  could  show  him  the  road  to  suc- 
cess, but  received  no  reply.  As  Mr.  Perkins  of  the 
Harvester  Trust  is  one  of  his  creators,  if  he  is 
elected,  and  as  he  is  a  great  power  in  Wall  Street, 
I  doubt  if  I  should  have  been  successful  had  I 
obtained  an  interview,  but  I  feel  positive  that 
Ex-President  Roosevelt  knows  the  justice  of  what 
I  am  saying,  even  if  he  could  not  uphold  the  plans 
I  advocate. 

I  felt  helpless  until  Bryan's  speech  in  Bal- 
timore, when  he  insisted  that  the  nominee  of  the 
Democratic  party  for  President  must  be  free  from 
Wall  Street  taint.  What  a  stand !  It  will  go  down 
in  history!  And  in  that  speech  I  saw  the  birth  of 
a  new  era  for  our  land.  I  later  called  on  Governor 
Wilson  and  found  his  eyes  opened  to  this  great 
evil,  and  in  his  election  I  see  freedom  as  a  possi- 
bility. It  is  useless  to  expect  it  otherwise.  Taft 
today  stands  very  little  chance  of  being  elected. 
They  say  Roosevelt  has  already  accepted  great  con- 
tributions from  Perkins  and  his  friends,  and  he 
must,  if  elected,  remember  his  creator;  but  Gov- 
ernor  Wilson,  from  William  Jennings  Bryan's  act 


196  CANNIBALS  OF  FINANCE 

that  day  in  Baltimore,  is  absolutely  free.  He 
should  be  elected  President,  and  it  is  my  earnest 
appeal  to  the  people  who  love  freedom,  to  help  me 
in  this  fight  and  help  elect  Governor  Wilson. 

And  at  the  same  time  Congress  and  the  Senate 
must  have  a  large  working  majority  so  there  can 
be  no  excuse  for  not  acting  in  this  matter.  Then 
the  nation  can  judge  whether  or  not  the  Demo- 
cratic party  is  the  party  for  redeeming  the  nation. 
There  is  no  doubt  the  Standard  Oil  Company  owns 
in  the  Senate  and  Congress  any  number  of  its 
members  and  will  endeavor  to  buy  others;  there- 
fore, whichever  party  goes  into  power  must  have 
a  great  working  majority.  It  looks  like  the  elec- 
tion of  Governor  Wilson,  and  if  this  is  so,  let  us 
make  it  a  sweeping  victory.  Had  Ex-President 
Roosevelt  been  nominated  by  the  Republican  party 
he  no  doubt  would  have  been  elected.  But  with 
a  divided  party  there  is  not  much  show. 

In  this  book  you  have  had  a  heart-to-heart  talk 
with  me.  I  have  given  you  facts  that  I  was  not 
free  to  give  you  while  I  wras  still  the  officer  of  any 
corporation.  The  Money  Trust  in  forcing  me  out 
of  all  companies  made  it  possible  for  me  to  write 
this  book.  It  cannot  but  do  its  work,  and,  like  the 
dove  from  out  the  ark,  I  expect  it  to  return  with 
the  sprig  of  freedom. 

May  my  reader  do  all  in  his  power  to  see  that  his 
friends  read  this  book;  write  them  and  request  it; 
see  them  and  request  it.  All  the  usual  channels  to 


THE  CONCLUSIONS  197 

distribute  books  are  closed  to  me.  Those  who  con- 
trol them  would  not  dare  help  me.  It  is  the  peo- 
ple's fight,  and  I  hope  one  and  all  will  consider  it 
a  personal  fight. 

In  closing,  I  wish  to  say  that  considering  the 
awful  perplexities  of  the  year,  considering  that  this 
month  I  was  forced  to  resign  from  all  the  com- 
panies of  which  I  was  president,  the  fact  that  within 
six  days  I  have  been  able  to  write  this  book  and 
have  it  in  the  printers'  hands,  proves  to  me  that 
these  Cannibals  of  Finance  have  not  deprived  me 
of  my  ability  to  work. 


ADDENDA 

The  daily  expose  of  Congressmen  and  Senators,  and  now 
this  letter  of  ex-President  Roosevelt  in  the  papers  of  Septem- 
ber 2,  1912,  revealing  Harriman's  character  from  his  own 
lips  to  the  Vice-President  of  the  United  States,  are  all  wonder- 
ful contributory  information  and  proof  of  what  I  have  stated 
in  the  preceding  pages  of  this  book.  This  letter  of  the  ex- 
President,  in  which  he  recounts  Mr.  Harriman's  words  of  the 
evil  he  would  do  when  necessary,  even  to  debauching  the 
court,  makes  you  wonder  what  mass  of  corruption  there  may 
be  still  unexposed. 

Understanding  the  power  and  influence  of  banks,  it  horrifies 
me  to  think  that  a  certain  group  of  New  York  banks  were 
dominated  by  men  who  robbed  the  nation  of  millions  by  false 
scales,  who  caused  the  wrecking  of  a  great  trust  company 
in  Philadelphia;  men  who  bought  judges;  men  who  the 
Supreme  Court  said  managed  their  companies  for  destructive 
and  evil  purposes;  men  like  Harriman,  who  said  he  could, 
and  did  when  he  wished,  buy  Legislators,  Congress  and  the 
Judiciary;  and  of  the  influence  for  evil  a  bank  thus  domi- 
nated has  for  taking  away  from  people  their  own,  and,  worst 
of  all,  taking  from  men  like  myself  LIBERTY  and  the  power  to 
bring  blessings  to  their  nation  and  people. 

In  no  other  nation  could  such  unprincipled  men  be  the 
controlling  power  in  great  banks.  Can  you  for  a  moment 
think  of  such  men  in  the  directory  of  the  Bank  of  England? 

I  feel  like  Paul  Revere  felt  when  he  started  to  arouse  the 
people  of  his  day.  Read  in  the  letter  I  here  give  you  extracts 
from  ex-President  Roosevelt's  letter  to  Vice-President  Sher- 
man. To  me  this  letter  seems  like  the  voice  of  Edward 
Harriman  saying,  "Here,  Stilwell,  is  ample  proof  that  I  was 
capable  of  doing  all  you  say  I  did." 

I  prefer  the  pirates  of  old.  You  could  see  them  coming; 
but  the  pirates  of  today  surround  you  by  the  influence  of 
banks,  the  press,  and  the  bought  influence  of  judges  and  men 
in  power,  and  thus  take  from  you  by  conditions  what  the 
pirates  of  old  took  by  force. 

198 


ADDENDA  199 

This  is  the  letter: 

"So  much  for  what  Mr.  Harriman  said  about  me  personally, 
jfar  more  important  are  the  additional  remarks  he  made  to  you,  as 
you  inform  me,  when  you  asked  him  if  he  thought  it  was  well  to 
see  Hearstism  and  the  like  triumphant  over  the  Eepublican  party. 
You  inform  me  that  he  told  you  that  he  did  not  care  in  the  least, 
because  those  people  were  crooks  and  he  could  buy  them;  that 
whenever  he  wanted  legislation  from  a  state  legislature  he  could 
buy  it;  that  he  'could  buy  Congress,'  and  that  if  necessary  he 
'  could  buy  the  judiciary. '  This  was  doubtless  said  partly  in  boast- 
ful cynicism  and  partly  in  a  mere  burst  of  bad  temper  because  of 
his  objection  to  the  interstate  commerce  law  and  to  my  actions  as 
President. 

"But  it  shows  a  cynicism  and  deep-seated  corruption  which 
makes  the  man  uttering  such  sentiments,  and  boasting,  no  matter 
how  falsely,  of  his  power  to  perform  such  crimes,  at  least  as  un- 
desirable a  citizen  as  Debs  or  Moyer  or  Haywood. 

"It  is  because  we  have  capitalists  capable  of  uttering  such  sen- 
timents and  capable  of  acting  on  them  that  there  is  strength  behind 
sinister  agitators  of  the  Hearst  type.  The  wealthy  corruptionist, 
and  the  demagogue  who  excites,  in  the  press  or  on  the  stump,  in 
office  or  out  of  office,  class  against  class  and  appeals  to  the  basest 
passions  of  the  human  soul,  are  fundamentally  alike  a"n"d  are 
equally  enemies  of  the  republic.  I  was  horrified,  as  was  Eo'ot,  when 
you  told  us  today  what  Harriman  had  said  to  you.  As  I  say,  if 
you  meet  him  you  are  entirely  welcome  to  show  him  this  leTter,  al- 
though, of  course,  it  must  not  be  made  public  unless  required  by 
some  reason  of  public  policy,  and  then  only  after  my  consent  has 
first  been  obtained.  Sincerely  yours, 

"THEODOKE  KOOSEVELT. 

"Hon.  J.  S.  Sherman,  St.  James  Building,  1133  Broadway,  New 
York." 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below 


DEC  2   .1948 


UWIVEKSITY  OF  CALIFOI»fIX 

AT 

LOS  ANGELES 
LIBRARY 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000568351    1 


